1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(1 Mar 1999)()()
3 manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
6 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
8 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
10 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
12 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
14 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
16 rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
20 rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
21 but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
22 greatly speedup file transfers when the destination file already
25 The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
26 differences between two sets of files across the network link, using
27 an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
28 report that accompanies this package.
30 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
33 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups and permissions
34 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
35 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
36 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including rsh or ssh
37 it() does not require root privileges
38 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
39 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
43 manpagesection(GENERAL)
45 There are six different ways of using rsync. They are:
48 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
49 source nor destination path contains a : separator
51 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
52 a remote shell program as the transport (such as rsh or
53 ssh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
56 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
57 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
58 contains a : separator.
60 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
61 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
62 separator or a rsync:// URL.
64 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
65 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
68 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
69 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
73 Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
74 and destination paths must be local.
78 See the file README for installation instructions.
80 Once installed you can use rsync to any machine that you can use rsh
81 to. rsync uses rsh for its communications, unless both the source and
82 destination are local.
84 You can also specify an alternative to rsh, by either using the -e
85 command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
87 One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
90 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
95 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
96 and a destination, one of which may be remote.
98 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is some examples:
100 quote(rsync *.c foo:src/)
102 this would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
103 current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
104 the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
105 remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
106 differences. See the tech report for details.
108 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
110 this would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
111 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
112 files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
113 links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships etc are preserved
114 in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
115 size of data portions of the transfer.
117 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
119 a trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to transfer
120 all files from the directory src/bar on the machine foo into the
121 /data/tmp/. A trailing / on a source name means "copy the
122 contents of this directory". Without a trailing slash it means "copy
123 the directory". This difference becomes particularly important when
124 using the --delete option.
126 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
127 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
128 an improved copy command.
130 quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
132 this would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
133 somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
136 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
138 It is also possible to use rsync without using rsh or ssh as the
139 transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
140 running on TCP port 873.
142 You may establish the connetcion via a web proxy by setting the
143 environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
144 your web proxy. Note that your web proxy must allow proxying to port
145 873, this must be configured in your proxy servers ruleset.
147 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with rsh or ssh except
151 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
152 separate the hostname from the path.
154 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
157 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
158 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
160 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
161 specified files on the remote server is provided.
164 Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
165 you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
166 password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
167 the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
168 may be useful when scripting rsync.
170 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
171 users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.
173 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
175 An rsync server is configured using a config file which by default is
176 called /etc/rsyncd.conf. Please see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
179 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
181 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
183 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
184 files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
186 quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
188 each night over a PPP link to a duplicate directory on my machine
191 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
195 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
198 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
202 this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
203 link. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
204 lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
206 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
209 quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
211 this is launched from cron every few hours.
213 manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
215 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
216 to the detailed description below for a complete description.
219 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
220 -q, --quiet decrease verbosity
221 -c, --checksum always checksum
222 -a, --archive archive mode
223 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
224 -R, --relative use relative path names
225 -b, --backup make backups (default ~ suffix)
226 --backup-dir=DIR put backups in the specified directory
227 --suffix=SUFFIX override backup suffix
228 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
229 -l, --links preserve soft links
230 -L, --copy-links treat soft links like regular files
231 --copy-unsafe-links copy links outside the source tree
232 --safe-links ignore links outside the destination tree
233 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
234 -p, --perms preserve permissions
235 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
236 -g, --group preserve group
237 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
238 -t, --times preserve times
239 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
240 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
241 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
242 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
243 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700)
244 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify rsh replacement
245 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
246 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
247 --existing only update files that already exist
248 --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side
249 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on the receiving side
250 --delete-after delete after transferring, not before
251 --ignore-errors delete even if there are IO errors
252 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
253 --partial keep partially transferred files
254 --force force deletion of directories even if not empty
255 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
256 --timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds
257 -I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time
258 --size-only only use file size when determining if a file should be transferred
259 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
260 --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
261 -P equivalent to --partial --progress
262 -z, --compress compress file data
263 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
264 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
265 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
266 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
267 --version print version number
268 --daemon run as a rsync daemon
269 --address bind to the specified address
270 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
271 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
272 --stats give some file transfer stats
273 --progress show progress during transfer
274 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
275 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
276 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
277 -h, --help show this help screen
282 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
283 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
284 below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
285 The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
289 dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
292 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
294 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
295 are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
296 single -v will give you information about what files are being
297 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
298 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
299 information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
300 you are debugging rsync.
302 dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
303 are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
304 from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
307 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
308 already the same length and have the same time-stamp. This option turns
311 dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
312 already the same length and have the same time-stamp. With the
313 --size-only option files will be skipped if they have the same size,
314 regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
315 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
318 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
319 a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
320 explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
321 which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
322 receiver are skipped. This option can be quite slow.
324 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick way
325 of saying you want recursion and want to preserve everything.
327 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
328 recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
331 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
332 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
333 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
334 you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
335 example, if you used the command
337 verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
339 then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
340 machine. If instead you used
342 verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
344 then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
345 machine. The full path name is preserved.
347 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option preexisting destination files are
348 renamed with a ~ extension as each file is transferred. You can
349 control the backup suffix using the --suffix option.
351 dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this
352 tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
353 very useful for incremental backups.
355 dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
356 backup suffix used with the -b option. The default is a ~.
358 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
359 destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
362 dit(bf(-l, --links)) This tells rsync to recreate symbolic links on the
363 remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
364 option, all symbolic links are skipped.
366 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links just
369 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links that
370 point outside the source tree like ordinary files. Absolute symlinks are
371 also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the source
372 path itself when --relative is used.
374 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
375 which point outside the destination tree. All absolute symlinks are
376 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
377 give unexpected results.
379 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
380 the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
381 option hard links are treated like regular files.
383 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
384 are in the list of files being sent.
386 This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
388 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
389 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. This may be
390 useful when using rsync with a local machine.
392 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
393 permissions to be the same as the local permissions.
395 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to update the remote owner
396 of the file to be the same as the local owner. This is only available
397 to the super-user. Note that if the source system is a daemon using chroot,
398 the --numeric-ids option is implied because the source system cannot get
399 access to the usernames.
401 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to update the remote group
402 of the file to be the same as the local group. If the receving system is
403 not running as the super-user, only groups that the receiver is a member of
404 will be preserved (by group name, not group id number).
406 dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
407 block device information to the remote system to recreate these
408 devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
410 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
411 with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
412 option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
413 modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
414 cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have
415 their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't
418 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
419 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
421 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
422 up less space on the destination.
424 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
425 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
426 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
428 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
429 boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
430 contents of only one filesystem.
432 dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files -
433 only update files that already exist on the destination.
435 dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
436 files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
437 to prevent disasters.
439 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
440 side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from
441 transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
443 This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected.
445 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
446 to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be
447 deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
449 If the sending side detects any IO errors then the deletion of any
450 files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
451 prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
452 sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
455 dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
456 receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
457 delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
459 dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions before
460 transferring files to try to ensure that there is sufficient space on
461 the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete after transferring
462 then use the --delete-after switch.
464 dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
465 they are not empty. This applies to both the --delete option and to
466 cases where rsync tries to copy a normal file but the destination
467 contains a directory of the same name.
469 Since this option was added, deletions were reordered to be done depth-first
470 so it is hardly ever needed anymore except in very obscure cases.
472 dit(bf(-B , --block_size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
473 the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
475 dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
476 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
477 remote copies of rsync. By default, rsync will use rsh, but you may
478 like to instead use ssh because of its high security.
480 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
481 environment variable.
483 dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
484 rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
485 that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
488 dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
489 certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
490 useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
492 You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
493 to build up the list of files to exclude.
495 See the section on exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
498 dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
499 option, but instead it adds all filenames listed in the file FILE to
500 the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with ';' or '#'
503 dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
504 specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
505 build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
507 See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
510 dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
513 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
514 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
515 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
516 a file should be ignored.
518 The exclude list is initialized to:
520 quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
521 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
522 *.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core)
524 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
525 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (space delimited).
527 Finally in each directory any files listed in the .cvsignore file in
528 that directory are added to the list.
530 dit(bf(--csum-length=LENGTH)) By default the primary checksum used in
531 rsync is a very strong 16 byte MD4 checksum. In most cases you will
532 find that a truncated version of this checksum is quite efficient, and
533 this will decrease the size of the checksum data sent over the link,
534 making things faster.
536 You can choose the number of bytes in the truncated checksum using the
537 --csum-length option. Any value less than or equal to 16 is valid.
539 Note that if you use this option then you run the risk of ending up
540 with an incorrect target file. The risk with a value of 16 is
541 microscopic and can be safely ignored (the universe will probably end
542 before it fails) but with smaller values the risk is higher.
544 Current versions of rsync actually use an adaptive algorithm for the
545 checksum length by default, using a 16 byte file checksum to determine
546 if a 2nd pass is required with a longer block checksum. Only use this
547 option if you have read the source code and know what you are doing.
549 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
550 scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
551 transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
552 the temporary files in the receiving directory.
554 dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as an
555 additional directory to compare destination files against when doing
556 transfers. This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while
557 leaving existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all
558 files have been successfully transferred (for example by moving directories
559 around and removing the old directory, although this requires also doing
560 the transfer with -I to avoid skipping files that haven't changed). This
561 option increases the usefulness of --partial because partially transferred
562 files will remain in the new temporary destination until they have a chance
563 to be completed. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the
564 destination directory.
566 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
567 the source file(s) which it sends to the destination machine. This
568 option is useful on slow links. The compression method used is the
569 same method that gzip uses.
571 Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
572 that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
573 compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
574 information sent for matching data blocks.
576 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
577 and user ids rather than using user and group names and mapping them
580 By default rsync will use the user name and group name to determine
581 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
582 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
583 option is not specified.
585 If the source system is a daemon using chroot, or if a user or group name
586 does not exist on the destination system, then the numeric id from the
587 source system is used instead.
589 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum IO
590 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
591 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
593 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a rsync
594 daemon. If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it
595 is being run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current
596 terminal and become a background daemon. The daemon will read the
597 config file (/etc/rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and
598 respond to requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
601 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
602 when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
603 rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
604 address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
605 in conjunction with the --config option.
607 dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
608 the default /etc/rsyncd.conf. This is only relevant when --daemon is
611 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
612 rather than the default port 873.
614 dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
615 rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
616 specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
619 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
620 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
621 algorithm is for your data.
623 dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
624 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
625 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
626 --partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
627 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
629 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
630 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
633 This option is normally combined with -v. Using this option without
634 the -v option will produce weird results on your display.
636 dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. I
637 found myself typing that combination quite often so I created an
638 option to make it easier.
640 dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
641 in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
642 is only useful when accessing a rsync server using the built in
643 transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
644 must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
647 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
648 transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
649 using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
650 of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
651 transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
652 result is an average transfer rate equalling the specified limit. A value
653 of zero specifies no limit.
657 manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
659 The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
660 selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
662 rsync builds a ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
663 the command line. When a filename is encountered, rsync checks the
664 name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
665 pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern than that file is
666 skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
667 skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
668 filename is not skipped.
670 Note that when used with -r (which is implied by -a), every subcomponent of
671 every path is visited from top down, so include/exclude patterns get
672 applied recursively to each subcomponent.
674 Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
675 each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and
676 --exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options.
678 The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
681 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
682 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
683 the filename. Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the base of
684 the tree. On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo"
685 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
686 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
687 end of the file name.
689 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
690 directory, not a file, link or device.
692 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
693 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
694 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
696 it() if the pattern includes a double asterisk "**" then all wildcards in
697 the pattern will match slashes, otherwise they will stop at slashes.
699 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) then it
700 is matched against the full filename, including any leading
701 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / then it is matched
702 only against the final component of the filename. Again, remember
703 that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can
704 actually be any portion of a path.
706 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
707 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
708 part of an exclude option. The "+ " part is discarded before matching.
710 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
711 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
712 part of an include option. The "- " part is discarded before matching.
714 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
715 exclude list is reset, removing all previous exclude patterns.
718 The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing you to have a
719 single exclude list that contains both include and exclude options.
721 If you end an exclude list with --exclude '*', note that since the
722 algorithm is applied recursively that unless you explicitly include
723 parent directories of files you want to include then the algorithm
724 will stop at the parent directories and never see the files below
725 them. To include all directories, use --include '*/' before the
728 Here are some exclude/include examples:
731 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
732 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file in the base directory called foo
733 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
734 it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
735 levels below a base directory called foo
736 it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
737 or more levels below a base directory called foo
738 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
739 directories and C source files
740 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
741 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
742 it would be excluded by the "*")
745 manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
747 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
748 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
749 version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
751 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
752 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
753 for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
754 remote shell like this:
757 rsh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
760 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
761 should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
762 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
763 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
764 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
765 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
766 for non-interactive logins.
768 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
772 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
773 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
776 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
777 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. This can
778 be used instead of the -e option.
780 dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
781 redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
782 rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
784 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
785 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to a rsync
786 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
787 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
789 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
790 are used to determine the default username sent to a rsync server.
792 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
793 default .cvsignore file.
809 times are transferred as unix time_t values
811 file permissions, devices etc are transferred as native numerical
814 see also the comments on the --delete option
816 Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at
817 url(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)
819 manpagesection(VERSION)
820 This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync
822 manpagesection(CREDITS)
824 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
827 A WEB site is available at
828 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
830 The primary ftp site for rsync is
831 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
833 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
835 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
836 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
838 manpagesection(THANKS)
840 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
841 and David Bell for helpful suggestions and testing of rsync. I've
842 probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
847 rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. They may be
848 contacted via email at tridge@samba.org and
849 Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au