The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
--daemon
This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
daemon you start running may be accessed using an rsync
client using the host::module or rsync://host/module/
syntax.
If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that
it is being run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from
the current terminal and become a background daemon. The
daemon will read the config file (rsyncd.conf) on each
connect made by a client and respond to requests
accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
details.
--address=ADDRESS
By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
run as a daemon with the --daemon option. The --address
option allows you to specify a specific IP address (or
hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
in conjunction with the --config option. See also the
"address" global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
--bwlimit=RATE
This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer
rate for the data the daemon sends over the socket. The
client can still specify a smaller --bwlimit value, but no
larger value will be allowed. See the client version of
this option (above) for some extra details.
--config=FILE
This specifies an alternate config file than the default.
This is only relevant when --daemon is specified. The
default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running
over a remote shell program and the remote user is not the
super-user; in that case the default is rsyncd.conf in the
current directory (typically $HOME).
--dparam=OVERRIDE, -M
This option can be used to set a daemon-config parameter
when starting up rsync in daemon mode. It is equivalent
to adding the parameter at the end of the global settings
prior to the first module's definition. The parameter
names can be specified without spaces, if you so desire.
For instance:
rsync --daemon -M pidfile=/path/rsync.pid
--no-detach
When running as a daemon, this option instructs rsync to
not detach itself and become a background process. This
option is required when running as a service on Cygwin,
and may also be useful when rsync is supervised by a
program such as daemontools or AIX's
System Resource Controller. --no-detach is also
recommended when rsync is run under a debugger. This
option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or sshd.
--port=PORT
This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the daemon
to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the
"port" global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
--log-file=FILE
This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given log-
file name instead of using the "log file" setting in the
config file.
--log-file-format=FORMAT
This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given FORMAT
string instead of using the "log format" setting in the
config file. It also enables "transfer logging" unless
the string is empty, in which case transfer logging is
turned off.
--sockopts
This overrides the socket options setting in the
rsyncd.conf file and has the same syntax.
--verbose, -v
This option increases the amount of information the daemon
logs during its startup phase. After the client connects,
the daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the
options that the client used and the "max verbosity"
setting in the module's config section.
--ipv4, -4 or --ipv6, -6
Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating the incoming
sockets that the rsync daemon will use to listen for
connections. One of these options may be required in
older versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the
kernel (if you see an "address already in use" error when
nothing else is using the port, try specifying --ipv6 or
--ipv4 when starting the daemon).
These options also exist in the regular rsync options
section.
If rsync was complied without support for IPv6, the --ipv6
option will have no effect. The rsync --version output
will contain "no IPv6" if is the case.
--help, -h
When specified after --daemon, print a short help page
describing the options available for starting an rsync
daemon.
