Rsync accepts both long (double-dash + word) and short (single-
dash + letter) options. The full list of the available options
are described below. If an option can be specified in more than
one way, the choices are comma-separated. Some options only have
a long variant, not a short. If the option takes a parameter,
the parameter is only listed after the long variant, even though
it must also be specified for the short. When specifying a
parameter, you can either use the form --option=param or replace
the '=' with whitespace. The parameter may need to be quoted in
some manner for it to survive the shell's command-line parsing.
Keep in mind that a leading tilde (~) in a filename is
substituted by your shell, so --option=~/foo will not change the
tilde into your home directory (remove the '=' for that).
--help, -h (*)
Print a short help page describing the options available
in rsync and exit. (*) The -h short option will only
invoke --help when used without other options since it
normally means --human-readable.
--version, -V
Print the rsync version plus other info and exit.
The output includes the default list of checksum
algorithms, the default list of compression algorithms, a
list of compiled-in capabilities, a link to the rsync web
site, and some license/copyright info.
--verbose, -v
This option increases the amount of information you are
given during the transfer. By default, rsync works
silently. A single -v will give you information about
what files are being transferred and a brief summary at
the end. Two -v options will give you information on what
files are being skipped and slightly more information at
the end. More than two -v options should only be used if
you are debugging rsync.
In a modern rsync, the -v option is equivalent to the
setting of groups of --info and --debug options. You can
choose to use these newer options in addition to, or in
place of using --verbose, as any fine-grained settings
override the implied settings of -v. Both --info and
--debug have a way to ask for help that tells you exactly
what flags are set for each increase in verbosity.
However, do keep in mind that a daemon's "max verbosity"
setting will limit how high of a level the various
individual flags can be set on the daemon side. For
instance, if the max is 2, then any info and/or debug flag
that is set to a higher value than what would be set by
-vv will be downgraded to the -vv level in the daemon's
logging.
--info=FLAGS
This option lets you have fine-grained control over the
information output you want to see. An individual flag
name may be followed by a level number, with 0 meaning to
silence that output, 1 being the default output level, and
higher numbers increasing the output of that flag (for
those that support higher levels). Use --info=help to see
all the available flag names, what they output, and what
flag names are added for each increase in the verbose
level. Some examples:
rsync -a --info=progress2 src/ dest/
rsync -avv --info=stats2,misc1,flist0 src/ dest/
Note that --info=name's output is affected by the --out-
format and --itemize-changes (-i) options. See those
options for more information on what is output and when.
This option was added to 3.1.0, so an older rsync on the
server side might reject your attempts at fine-grained
control (if one or more flags needed to be send to the
server and the server was too old to understand them).
See also the "max verbosity" caveat above when dealing
with a daemon.
--debug=FLAGS
This option lets you have fine-grained control over the
debug output you want to see. An individual flag name may
be followed by a level number, with 0 meaning to silence
that output, 1 being the default output level, and higher
numbers increasing the output of that flag (for those that
support higher levels). Use --debug=help to see all the
available flag names, what they output, and what flag
names are added for each increase in the verbose level.
Some examples:
rsync -avvv --debug=none src/ dest/
rsync -avA --del --debug=del2,acl src/ dest/
Note that some debug messages will only be output when
--stderr=all is specified, especially those pertaining to
I/O and buffer debugging.
Beginning in 3.2.0, this option is no longer auto-
forwarded to the server side in order to allow you to
specify different debug values for each side of the
transfer, as well as to specify a new debug option that is
only present in one of the rsync versions. If you want to
duplicate the same option on both sides, using brace
expansion is an easy way to save you some typing. This
works in zsh and bash:
rsync -aiv {-M,}--debug=del2 src/ dest/
--stderr=errors|all|client
This option controls which processes output to stderr and
if info messages are also changed to stderr. The mode
strings can be abbreviated, so feel free to use a single
letter value. The 3 possible choices are:
o errors - (the default) causes all the rsync
processes to send an error directly to stderr, even
if the process is on the remote side of the
transfer. Info messages are sent to the client
side via the protocol stream. If stderr is not
available (i.e. when directly connecting with a
daemon via a socket) errors fall back to being sent
via the protocol stream.
o all - causes all rsync messages (info and error) to
get written directly to stderr from all (possible)
processes. This causes stderr to become line-
buffered (instead of raw) and eliminates the
ability to divide up the info and error messages by
file handle. For those doing debugging or using
several levels of verbosity, this option can help
to avoid clogging up the transfer stream (which
should prevent any chance of a deadlock bug hanging
things up). It also enables the outputting of some
I/O related debug messages.
o client - causes all rsync messages to be sent to
the client side via the protocol stream. One
client process outputs all messages, with errors on
stderr and info messages on stdout. This was the
default in older rsync versions, but can cause
error delays when a lot of transfer data is ahead
of the messages. If you're pushing files to an
older rsync, you may want to use --stderr=all since
that idiom has been around for several releases.
This option was added in rsync 3.2.3. This version also
began the forwarding of a non-default setting to the
remote side, though rsync uses the backward-compatible
options --msgs2stderr and --no-msgs2stderr to represent
the all and client settings, respectively. A newer rsync
will continue to accept these older option names to
maintain compatibility.
--quiet, -q
This option decreases the amount of information you are
given during the transfer, notably suppressing information
messages from the remote server. This option is useful
when invoking rsync from cron.
--no-motd
This option affects the information that is output by the
client at the start of a daemon transfer. This suppresses
the message-of-the-day (MOTD) text, but it also affects
the list of modules that the daemon sends in response to
the "rsync host::" request (due to a limitation in the
rsync protocol), so omit this option if you want to
request the list of modules from the daemon.
--ignore-times, -I
Normally rsync will skip any files that are already the
same size and have the same modification timestamp. This
option turns off this "quick check" behavior, causing all
files to be updated.
--size-only
This modifies rsync's "quick check" algorithm for finding
files that need to be transferred, changing it from the
default of transferring files with either a changed size
or a changed last-modified time to just looking for files
that have changed in size. This is useful when starting
to use rsync after using another mirroring system which
may not preserve timestamps exactly.
--modify-window=NUM, -@
When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the timestamps
as being equal if they differ by no more than the modify-
window value. The default is 0, which matches just
integer seconds. If you specify a negative value (and the
receiver is at least version 3.1.3) then nanoseconds will
also be taken into account. Specifying 1 is useful for
copies to/from MS Windows FAT filesystems, because FAT
represents times with a 2-second resolution (allowing
times to differ from the original by up to 1 second).
If you want all your transfers to default to comparing
nanoseconds, you can create a ~/.popt file and put these
lines in it:
rsync alias -a -a@-1
rsync alias -t -t@-1
With that as the default, you'd need to specify --modify-
window=0 (aka -@0) to override it and ignore nanoseconds,
e.g. if you're copying between ext3 and ext4, or if the
receiving rsync is older than 3.1.3.
--checksum, -c
This changes the way rsync checks if the files have been
changed and are in need of a transfer. Without this
option, rsync uses a "quick check" that (by default)
checks if each file's size and time of last modification
match between the sender and receiver. This option
changes this to compare a 128-bit checksum for each file
that has a matching size. Generating the checksums means
that both sides will expend a lot of disk I/O reading all
the data in the files in the transfer, so this can slow
things down significantly (and this is prior to any
reading that will be done to transfer changed files)
The sending side generates its checksums while it is doing
the file-system scan that builds the list of the available
files. The receiver generates its checksums when it is
scanning for changed files, and will checksum any file
that has the same size as the corresponding sender's file:
files with either a changed size or a changed checksum are
selected for transfer.
Note that rsync always verifies that each transferred file
was correctly reconstructed on the receiving side by
checking a whole-file checksum that is generated as the
file is transferred, but that automatic after-the-transfer
verification has nothing to do with this option's before-
the-transfer "Does this file need to be updated?" check.
The checksum used is auto-negotiated between the client
and the server, but can be overridden using either the
--checksum-choice (--cc) option or an environment variable
that is discussed in that option's section.
--archive, -a
This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick way of
saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
everything (with -H being a notable omission). The only
exception to the above equivalence is when --files-from is
specified, in which case -r is not implied.
Note that -a does not preserve hardlinks, because finding
multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
specify -H.
--no-OPTION
You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing
the option name with "no-". Not all options may be
prefixed with a "no-": only options that are implied by
other options (e.g. --no-D, --no-perms) or have different
defaults in various circumstances (e.g. --no-whole-file,
--no-blocking-io, --no-dirs). You may specify either the
short or the long option name after the "no-" prefix (e.g.
--no-R is the same as --no-relative).
For example: if you want to use -a (--archive) but don't
want -o (--owner), instead of converting -a into -rlptgD,
you could specify -a --no-o (or -a --no-owner).
The order of the options is important: if you specify
--no-r -a, the -r option would end up being turned on, the
opposite of -a --no-r. Note also that the side-effects of
the --files-from option are NOT positional, as it affects
the default state of several options and slightly changes
the meaning of -a (see the --files-from option for more
details).
--recursive, -r
This tells rsync to copy directories recursively. See
also --dirs (-d).
Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, the recursive algorithm used
is now an incremental scan that uses much less memory than
before and begins the transfer after the scanning of the
first few directories have been completed. This
incremental scan only affects our recursion algorithm, and
does not change a non-recursive transfer. It is also only
possible when both ends of the transfer are at least
version 3.0.0.
Some options require rsync to know the full file list, so
these options disable the incremental recursion mode.
These include: --delete-before, --delete-after, --prune-
empty-dirs, and --delay-updates. Because of this, the
default delete mode when you specify --delete is now
--delete-during when both ends of the connection are at
least 3.0.0 (use --del or --delete-during to request this
improved deletion mode explicitly). See also the
--delete-delay option that is a better choice than using
--delete-after.
Incremental recursion can be disabled using the --no-inc-
recursive option or its shorter --no-i-r alias.
--relative, -R
Use relative paths. This means that the full path names
specified on the command line are sent to the server
rather than just the last parts of the filenames. This is
particularly useful when you want to send several
different directories at the same time. For example, if
you used this command:
rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
would create a file named baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote
machine. If instead you used
rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
then a file named /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on
the remote machine, preserving its full path. These extra
path elements are called "implied directories" (i.e. the
"foo" and the "foo/bar" directories in the above example).
Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, rsync always sends these
implied directories as real directories in the file list,
even if a path element is really a symlink on the sending
side. This prevents some really unexpected behaviors when
copying the full path of a file that you didn't realize
had a symlink in its path. If you want to duplicate a
server-side symlink, include both the symlink via its
path, and referent directory via its real path. If you're
dealing with an older rsync on the sending side, you may
need to use the --no-implied-dirs option.
It is also possible to limit the amount of path
information that is sent as implied directories for each
path you specify. With a modern rsync on the sending side
(beginning with 2.6.7), you can insert a dot and a slash
into the source path, like this:
rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine.
(Note that the dot must be followed by a slash, so
"/foo/." would not be abbreviated.) For older rsync
versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the
source path. For example, when pushing files:
(cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/)
(Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-
shell, so that the "cd" command doesn't remain in effect
for future commands.) If you're pulling files from an
older rsync, use this idiom (but only for a non-daemon
transfer):
rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \
remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/
--no-implied-dirs
This option affects the default behavior of the --relative
option. When it is specified, the attributes of the
implied directories from the source names are not included
in the transfer. This means that the corresponding path
elements on the destination system are left unchanged if
they exist, and any missing implied directories are
created with default attributes. This even allows these
implied path elements to have big differences, such as
being a symlink to a directory on the receiving side.
For instance, if a command-line arg or a files-from entry
told rsync to transfer the file "path/foo/file", the
directories "path" and "path/foo" are implied when
--relative is used. If "path/foo" is a symlink to "bar"
on the destination system, the receiving rsync would
ordinarily delete "path/foo", recreate it as a directory,
and receive the file into the new directory. With --no-
implied-dirs, the receiving rsync updates "path/foo/file"
using the existing path elements, which means that the
file ends up being created in "path/bar". Another way to
accomplish this link preservation is to use the --keep-
dirlinks option (which will also affect symlinks to
directories in the rest of the transfer).
When pulling files from an rsync older than 3.0.0, you may
need to use this option if the sending side has a symlink
in the path you request and you wish the implied
directories to be transferred as normal directories.
--backup, -b
With this option, preexisting destination files are
renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can
control where the backup file goes and what (if any)
suffix gets appended using the --backup-dir and --suffix
options.
Note that if you don't specify --backup-dir, (1) the
--omit-dir-times option will be forced on, and (2) if
--delete is also in effect (without --delete-excluded),
rsync will add a "protect" filter-rule for the backup
suffix to the end of all your existing excludes (e.g.
-f "P *~"). This will prevent previously backed-up files
from being deleted. Note that if you are supplying your
own filter rules, you may need to manually insert your own
exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up in the list so
that it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g.,
if your rules specify a trailing inclusion/exclusion of *,
the auto-added rule would never be reached).
--backup-dir=DIR
This implies the --backup option, and tells rsync to store
all backups in the specified directory on the receiving
side. This can be used for incremental backups. You can
additionally specify a backup suffix using the --suffix
option (otherwise the files backed up in the specified
directory will keep their original filenames).
Note that if you specify a relative path, the backup
directory will be relative to the destination directory,
so you probably want to specify either an absolute path or
a path that starts with "../". If an rsync daemon is the
receiver, the backup dir cannot go outside the module's
path hierarchy, so take extra care not to delete it or
copy into it.
--suffix=SUFFIX
This option allows you to override the default backup
suffix used with the --backup (-b) option. The default
suffix is a ~ if no --backup-dir was specified, otherwise
it is an empty string.
--update, -u
This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on the
destination and have a modified time that is newer than
the source file. (If an existing destination file has a
modification time equal to the source file's, it will be
updated if the sizes are different.)
Note that this does not affect the copying of dirs,
symlinks, or other special files. Also, a difference of
file format between the sender and receiver is always
considered to be important enough for an update, no matter
what date is on the objects. In other words, if the
source has a directory where the destination has a file,
the transfer would occur regardless of the timestamps.
This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it
doesn't affect the data that goes into the file-lists, and
thus it doesn't affect deletions. It just limits the
files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
--inplace
This option changes how rsync transfers a file when its
data needs to be updated: instead of the default method of
creating a new copy of the file and moving it into place
when it is complete, rsync instead writes the updated data
directly to the destination file.
This has several effects:
o Hard links are not broken. This means the new data
will be visible through other hard links to the
destination file. Moreover, attempts to copy
differing source files onto a multiply-linked
destination file will result in a "tug of war" with
the destination data changing back and forth.
o In-use binaries cannot be updated (either the OS
will prevent this from happening, or binaries that
attempt to swap-in their data will misbehave or
crash).
o The file's data will be in an inconsistent state
during the transfer and will be left that way if
the transfer is interrupted or if an update fails.
o A file that rsync cannot write to cannot be
updated. While a super user can update any file, a
normal user needs to be granted write permission
for the open of the file for writing to be
successful.
o The efficiency of rsync's delta-transfer algorithm
may be reduced if some data in the destination file
is overwritten before it can be copied to a
position later in the file. This does not apply if
you use --backup, since rsync is smart enough to
use the backup file as the basis file for the
transfer.
WARNING: you should not use this option to update files
that are being accessed by others, so be careful when
choosing to use this for a copy.
This option is useful for transferring large files with
block-based changes or appended data, and also on systems
that are disk bound, not network bound. It can also help
keep a copy-on-write filesystem snapshot from diverging
the entire contents of a file that only has minor changes.
The option implies --partial (since an interrupted
transfer does not delete the file), but conflicts with
--partial-dir and --delay-updates. Prior to rsync 2.6.4
--inplace was also incompatible with --compare-dest and
--link-dest.
--append
This special copy mode only works to efficiently update
files that are known to be growing larger where any
existing content on the receiving side is also known to be
the same as the content on the sender. The use of
--append can be dangerous if you aren't 100% sure that all
the files in the transfer are shared, growing files. You
should thus use filter rules to ensure that you weed out
any files that do not fit this criteria.
Rsync updates these growing file in-place without
verifying any of the existing content in the file (it only
verifies the content that it is appending). Rsync skips
any files that exist on the receiving side that are not
shorter than the associated file on the sending side
(which means that new files are trasnferred).
This does not interfere with the updating of a file's non-
content attributes (e.g. permissions, ownership, etc.)
when the file does not need to be transferred, nor does it
affect the updating of any directories or non-regular
files.
--append-verify
This special copy mode works like --append except that all
the data in the file is included in the checksum
verification (making it much less efficient but also
potentially safer). This option can be dangerous if you
aren't 100% sure that all the files in the transfer are
shared, growing files. See the --append option for more
details.
Note: prior to rsync 3.0.0, the --append option worked
like --append-verify, so if you are interacting with an
older rsync (or the transfer is using a protocol prior to
30), specifying either append option will initiate an
--append-verify transfer.
--dirs, -d
Tell the sending side to include any directories that are
encountered. Unlike --recursive, a directory's contents
are not copied unless the directory name specified is "."
or ends with a trailing slash (e.g. ".", "dir/.", "dir/",
etc.). Without this option or the --recursive option,
rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and output
a message to that effect for each one). If you specify
both --dirs and --recursive, --recursive takes precedence.
The --dirs option is implied by the --files-from option or
the --list-only option (including an implied --list-only
usage) if --recursive wasn't specified (so that
directories are seen in the listing). Specify --no-dirs
(or --no-d) if you want to turn this off.
There is also a backward-compatibility helper option,
--old-dirs (or --old-d) that tells rsync to use a hack of
-r --exclude='/*/*' to get an older rsync to list a single
directory without recursing.
--mkpath
Create a missing path component of the destination arg.
This allows rsync to create multiple levels of missing
destination dirs and to create a path in which to put a
single renamed file. Keep in mind that you'll need to
supply a trailing slash if you want the entire destination
path to be treated as a directory when copying a single
arg (making rsync behave the same way that it would if the
path component of the destination had already existed).
For example, the following creates a copy of file foo as
bar in the sub/dir directory, creating dirs "sub" and
"sub/dir" if either do not yet exist:
rsync -ai --mkpath foo sub/dir/bar
If you instead ran the following, it would have created
file foo in the sub/dir/bar directory:
rsync -ai --mkpath foo sub/dir/bar/
--links, -l
When symlinks are encountered, recreate the symlink on the
destination.
--copy-links, -L
When symlinks are encountered, the item that they point to
(the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In
older versions of rsync, this option also had the side-
effect of telling the receiving side to follow symlinks,
such as symlinks to directories. In a modern rsync such
as this one, you'll need to specify --keep-dirlinks (-K)
to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when
sending files to an rsync that is too old to understand
-K -- in that case, the -L option will still have the
side-effect of -K on that older receiving rsync.
--copy-unsafe-links
This tells rsync to copy the referent of symbolic links
that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks are
also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks
in the source path itself when --relative is used. This
option has no additional effect if --copy-links was also
specified.
Note that the cut-off point is the top of the transfer,
which is the part of the path that rsync isn't mentioning
in the verbose output. If you copy "/src/subdir" to
"/dest/" then the "subdir" directory is a name inside the
transfer tree, not the top of the transfer (which is /src)
so it is legal for created relative symlinks to refer to
other names inside the /src and /dest directories. If you
instead copy "/src/subdir/" (with a trailing slash) to
"/dest/subdir" that would not allow symlinks to any files
outside of "subdir".
--safe-links
This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links which point
outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are also
ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative
may give unexpected results.
--munge-links
This option tells rsync to (1) modify all symlinks on the
receiving side in a way that makes them unusable but
recoverable (see below), or (2) to unmunge symlinks on the
sending side that had been stored in a munged state. This
is useful if you don't quite trust the source of the data
to not try to slip in a symlink to a unexpected place.
The way rsync disables the use of symlinks is to prefix
each one with the string "/rsyncd-munged/". This prevents
the links from being used as long as that directory does
not exist. When this option is enabled, rsync will refuse
to run if that path is a directory or a symlink to a
directory.
The option only affects the client side of the transfer,
so if you need it to affect the server, specify it via
--remote-option. (Note that in a local transfer, the
client side is the sender.)
This option has no affect on a daemon, since the daemon
configures whether it wants munged symlinks via its
"munge symlinks" parameter. See also the "munge-symlinks"
perl script in the support directory of the source code.
--copy-dirlinks, -k
This option causes the sending side to treat a symlink to
a directory as though it were a real directory. This is
useful if you don't want symlinks to non-directories to be
affected, as they would be using --copy-links.
Without this option, if the sending side has replaced a
directory with a symlink to a directory, the receiving
side will delete anything that is in the way of the new
symlink, including a directory hierarchy (as long as
--force or --delete is in effect).
See also --keep-dirlinks for an analogous option for the
receiving side.
--copy-dirlinks applies to all symlinks to directories in
the source. If you want to follow only a few specified
symlinks, a trick you can use is to pass them as
additional source args with a trailing slash, using
--relative to make the paths match up right. For example:
rsync -r --relative src/./ src/./follow-me/ dest/
This works because rsync calls lstat(2) on the source arg
as given, and the trailing slash makes lstat(2) follow the
symlink, giving rise to a directory in the file-list which
overrides the symlink found during the scan of "src/./".
--keep-dirlinks, -K
This option causes the receiving side to treat a symlink
to a directory as though it were a real directory, but
only if it matches a real directory from the sender.
Without this option, the receiver's symlink would be
deleted and replaced with a real directory.
For example, suppose you transfer a directory "foo" that
contains a file "file", but "foo" is a symlink to
directory "bar" on the receiver. Without --keep-dirlinks,
the receiver deletes symlink "foo", recreates it as a
directory, and receives the file into the new directory.
With --keep-dirlinks, the receiver keeps the symlink and
"file" ends up in "bar".
One note of caution: if you use --keep-dirlinks, you must
trust all the symlinks in the copy! If it is possible for
an untrusted user to create their own symlink to any
directory, the user could then (on a subsequent copy)
replace the symlink with a real directory and affect the
content of whatever directory the symlink references. For
backup copies, you are better off using something like a
bind mount instead of a symlink to modify your receiving
hierarchy.
See also --copy-dirlinks for an analogous option for the
sending side.
--hard-links, -H
This tells rsync to look for hard-linked files in the
source and link together the corresponding files on the
destination. Without this option, hard-linked files in
the source are treated as though they were separate files.
This option does NOT necessarily ensure that the pattern
of hard links on the destination exactly matches that on
the source. Cases in which the destination may end up
with extra hard links include the following:
o If the destination contains extraneous hard-links
(more linking than what is present in the source
file list), the copying algorithm will not break
them explicitly. However, if one or more of the
paths have content differences, the normal file-
update process will break those extra links (unless
you are using the --inplace option).
o If you specify a --link-dest directory that
contains hard links, the linking of the destination
files against the --link-dest files can cause some
paths in the destination to become linked together
due to the --link-dest associations.
Note that rsync can only detect hard links between files
that are inside the transfer set. If rsync updates a file
that has extra hard-link connections to files outside the
transfer, that linkage will be broken. If you are tempted
to use the --inplace option to avoid this breakage, be
very careful that you know how your files are being
updated so that you are certain that no unintended changes
happen due to lingering hard links (and see the --inplace
option for more caveats).
If incremental recursion is active (see --recursive),
rsync may transfer a missing hard-linked file before it
finds that another link for that contents exists elsewhere
in the hierarchy. This does not affect the accuracy of
the transfer (i.e. which files are hard-linked together),
just its efficiency (i.e. copying the data for a new,
early copy of a hard-linked file that could have been
found later in the transfer in another member of the hard-
linked set of files). One way to avoid this inefficiency
is to disable incremental recursion using the --no-inc-
recursive option.
--perms, -p
This option causes the receiving rsync to set the
destination permissions to be the same as the source
permissions. (See also the --chmod option for a way to
modify what rsync considers to be the source permissions.)
When this option is off, permissions are set as follows:
o Existing files (including updated files) retain
their existing permissions, though the
--executability option might change just the
execute permission for the file.
o New files get their "normal" permission bits set to
the source file's permissions masked with the
receiving directory's default permissions (either
the receiving process's umask, or the permissions
specified via the destination directory's default
ACL), and their special permission bits disabled
except in the case where a new directory inherits a
setgid bit from its parent directory.
Thus, when --perms and --executability are both disabled,
rsync's behavior is the same as that of other file-copy
utilities, such as cp(1) and tar(1).
In summary: to give destination files (both old and new)
the source permissions, use --perms. To give new files
the destination-default permissions (while leaving
existing files unchanged), make sure that the --perms
option is off and use --chmod=ugo=rwX (which ensures that
all non-masked bits get enabled). If you'd care to make
this latter behavior easier to type, you could define a
popt alias for it, such as putting this line in the file
~/.popt (the following defines the -Z option, and includes
--no-g to use the default group of the destination dir):
rsync alias -Z --no-p --no-g --chmod=ugo=rwX
You could then use this new option in a command such as
this one:
rsync -avZ src/ dest/
(Caveat: make sure that -a does not follow -Z, or it will
re-enable the two --no-* options mentioned above.)
The preservation of the destination's setgid bit on newly-
created directories when --perms is off was added in rsync
2.6.7. Older rsync versions erroneously preserved the
three special permission bits for newly-created files when
--perms was off, while overriding the destination's setgid
bit setting on a newly-created directory. Default ACL
observance was added to the ACL patch for rsync 2.6.7, so
older (or non-ACL-enabled) rsyncs use the umask even if
default ACLs are present. (Keep in mind that it is the
version of the receiving rsync that affects these
behaviors.)
--executability, -E
This option causes rsync to preserve the executability (or
non-executability) of regular files when --perms is not
enabled. A regular file is considered to be executable if
at least one 'x' is turned on in its permissions. When an
existing destination file's executability differs from
that of the corresponding source file, rsync modifies the
destination file's permissions as follows:
o To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all
its 'x' permissions.
o To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x'
permission that has a corresponding 'r' permission
enabled.
If --perms is enabled, this option is ignored.
--acls, -A
This option causes rsync to update the destination ACLs to
be the same as the source ACLs. The option also implies
--perms.
The source and destination systems must have compatible
ACL entries for this option to work properly. See the
--fake-super option for a way to backup and restore ACLs
that are not compatible.
--xattrs, -X
This option causes rsync to update the destination
extended attributes to be the same as the source ones.
For systems that support extended-attribute namespaces, a
copy being done by a super-user copies all namespaces
except system.*. A normal user only copies the user.*
namespace. To be able to backup and restore non-user
namespaces as a normal user, see the --fake-super option.
The above name filtering can be overridden by using one or
more filter options with the x modifier. When you specify
an xattr-affecting filter rule, rsync requires that you do
your own system/user filtering, as well as any additional
filtering for what xattr names are copied and what names
are allowed to be deleted. For example, to skip the
system namespace, you could specify:
--filter='-x system.*'
To skip all namespaces except the user namespace, you
could specify a negated-user match:
--filter='-x! user.*'
To prevent any attributes from being deleted, you could
specify a receiver-only rule that excludes all names:
--filter='-xr *'
Note that the -X option does not copy rsync's special
xattr values (e.g. those used by --fake-super) unless you
repeat the option (e.g. -XX). This "copy all xattrs" mode
cannot be used with --fake-super.
--chmod=CHMOD
This option tells rsync to apply one or more comma-
separated "chmod" modes to the permission of the files in
the transfer. The resulting value is treated as though it
were the permissions that the sending side supplied for
the file, which means that this option can seem to have no
effect on existing files if --perms is not enabled.
In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the
chmod(1) manpage, you can specify an item that should only
apply to a directory by prefixing it with a 'D', or
specify an item that should only apply to a file by
prefixing it with a 'F'. For example, the following will
ensure that all directories get marked set-gid, that no
files are other-writable, that both are user-writable and
group-writable, and that both have consistent
executability across all bits:
--chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X
Using octal mode numbers is also allowed:
--chmod=D2775,F664
It is also legal to specify multiple --chmod options, as
each additional option is just appended to the list of
changes to make.
See the --perms and --executability options for how the
resulting permission value can be applied to the files in
the transfer.
--owner, -o
This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
destination file to be the same as the source file, but
only if the receiving rsync is being run as the super-user
(see also the --super and --fake-super options). Without
this option, the owner of new and/or transferred files are
set to the invoking user on the receiving side.
The preservation of ownership will associate matching
names by default, but may fall back to using the ID number
in some circumstances (see also the --numeric-ids option
for a full discussion).
--group, -g
This option causes rsync to set the group of the
destination file to be the same as the source file. If
the receiving program is not running as the super-user (or
if --no-super was specified), only groups that the
invoking user on the receiving side is a member of will be
preserved. Without this option, the group is set to the
default group of the invoking user on the receiving side.
The preservation of group information will associate
matching names by default, but may fall back to using the
ID number in some circumstances (see also the --numeric-
ids option for a full discussion).
--devices
This option causes rsync to transfer character and block
device files to the remote system to recreate these
devices. This option has no effect if the receiving rsync
is not run as the super-user (see also the --super and
--fake-super options).
--specials
This option causes rsync to transfer special files such as
named sockets and fifos.
-D The -D option is equivalent to --devices --specials.
--write-devices
This tells rsync to treat a device on the receiving side
as a regular file, allowing the writing of file data into
a device.
This option implies the --inplace option.
Be careful using this, as you should know what devices are
present on the receiving side of the transfer, especially
if running rsync as root.
This option is refused by an rsync daemon.
--times, -t
This tells rsync to transfer modification times along with
the files and update them on the remote system. Note that
if this option is not used, the optimization that excludes
files that have not been modified cannot be effective; in
other words, a missing -t or -a will cause the next
transfer to behave as if it used -I, causing all files to
be updated (though rsync's delta-transfer algorithm will
make the update fairly efficient if the files haven't
actually changed, you're much better off using -t).
--atimes, -U
This tells rsync to set the access (use) times of the
destination files to the same value as the source files.
If repeated, it also sets the --open-noatime option, which
can help you to make the sending and receiving systems
have the same access times on the transferred files
without needing to run rsync an extra time after a file is
transferred.
Note that some older rsync versions (prior to 3.2.0) may
have been built with a pre-release --atimes patch that
does not imply --open-noatime when this option is
repeated.
--open-noatime
This tells rsync to open files with the O_NOATIME flag (on
systems that support it) to avoid changing the access time
of the files that are being transferred. If your OS does
not support the O_NOATIME flag then rsync will silently
ignore this option. Note also that some filesystems are
mounted to avoid updating the atime on read access even
without the O_NOATIME flag being set.
--crtimes, -N,
This tells rsync to set the create times (newness) of the
destination files to the same value as the source files.
--omit-dir-times, -O
This tells rsync to omit directories when it is preserving
modification times (see --times). If NFS is sharing the
directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to
use -O. This option is inferred if you use --backup
without --backup-dir.
This option also has the side-effect of avoiding early
creation of directories in incremental recursion copies.
The default --inc-recursive copying normally does an
early-create pass of all the sub-directories in a parent
directory in order for it to be able to then set the
modify time of the parent directory right away (without
having to delay that until a bunch of recursive copying
has finished). This early-create idiom is not necessary
if directory modify times are not being preserved, so it
is skipped. Since early-create directories don't have
accurate mode, mtime, or ownership, the use of this option
can help when someone wants to avoid these partially-
finished directories.
--omit-link-times, -J
This tells rsync to omit symlinks when it is preserving
modification times (see --times).
--super
This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user
activities even if the receiving rsync wasn't run by the
super-user. These activities include: preserving users
via the --owner option, preserving all groups (not just
the current user's groups) via the --groups option, and
copying devices via the --devices option. This is useful
for systems that allow such activities without being the
super-user, and also for ensuring that you will get errors
if the receiving side isn't being run as the super-user.
To turn off super-user activities, the super-user can use
--no-super.
--fake-super
When this option is enabled, rsync simulates super-user
activities by saving/restoring the privileged attributes
via special extended attributes that are attached to each
file (as needed). This includes the file's owner and
group (if it is not the default), the file's device info
(device & special files are created as empty text files),
and any permission bits that we won't allow to be set on
the real file (e.g. the real file gets u-s,g-s,o-t for
safety) or that would limit the owner's access (since the
real super-user can always access/change a file, the files
we create can always be accessed/changed by the creating
user). This option also handles ACLs (if --acls was
specified) and non-user extended attributes (if --xattrs
was specified).
This is a good way to backup data without using a super-
user, and to store ACLs from incompatible systems.
The --fake-super option only affects the side where the
option is used. To affect the remote side of a remote-
shell connection, use the --remote-option (-M) option:
rsync -av -M--fake-super /src/ host:/dest/
For a local copy, this option affects both the source and
the destination. If you wish a local copy to enable this
option just for the destination files, specify -M--fake-
super. If you wish a local copy to enable this option
just for the source files, combine --fake-super with
-M--super.
This option is overridden by both --super and --no-super.
See also the "fake super" setting in the daemon's
rsyncd.conf file.
--sparse, -S
Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take up
less space on the destination. If combined with --inplace
the file created might not end up with sparse blocks with
some combinations of kernel version and/or filesystem
type. If --whole-file is in effect (e.g. for a local
copy) then it will always work because rsync truncates the
file prior to writing out the updated version.
Note that versions of rsync older than 3.1.3 will reject
the combination of --sparse and --inplace.
--preallocate
This tells the receiver to allocate each destination file
to its eventual size before writing data to the file.
Rsync will only use the real filesystem-level
preallocation support provided by Linux's fallocate(2)
system call or Cygwin's posix_fallocate(3), not the slow
glibc implementation that writes a null byte into each
block.
Without this option, larger files may not be entirely
contiguous on the filesystem, but with this option rsync
will probably copy more slowly. If the destination is not
an extent-supporting filesystem (such as ext4, xfs, NTFS,
etc.), this option may have no positive effect at all.
If combined with --sparse, the file will only have sparse
blocks (as opposed to allocated sequences of null bytes)
if the kernel version and filesystem type support creating
holes in the allocated data.
--dry-run, -n
This makes rsync perform a trial run that doesn't make any
changes (and produces mostly the same output as a real
run). It is most commonly used in combination with the
--verbose, -v and/or --itemize-changes, -i options to see
what an rsync command is going to do before one actually
runs it.
The output of --itemize-changes is supposed to be exactly
the same on a dry run and a subsequent real run (barring
intentional trickery and system call failures); if it
isn't, that's a bug. Other output should be mostly
unchanged, but may differ in some areas. Notably, a dry
run does not send the actual data for file transfers, so
--progress has no effect, the "bytes sent", "bytes
received", "literal data", and "matched data" statistics
are too small, and the "speedup" value is equivalent to a
run where no file transfers were needed.
--whole-file, -W
This option disables rsync's delta-transfer algorithm,
which causes all transferred files to be sent whole. The
transfer may be faster if this option is used when the
bandwidth between the source and destination machines is
higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
"disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the
default when both the source and destination are specified
as local paths, but only if no batch-writing option is in
effect.
--checksum-choice=STR, --cc=STR
This option overrides the checksum algorithms. If one
algorithm name is specified, it is used for both the
transfer checksums and (assuming --checksum is specified)
the pre-transfer checksums. If two comma-separated names
are supplied, the first name affects the transfer
checksums, and the second name affects the pre-transfer
checksums (-c).
The checksum options that you may be able to use are:
o auto (the default automatic choice)
o xxh128
o xxh3
o xxh64 (aka xxhash)
o md5
o md4
o none
Run rsync --version to see the default checksum list
compiled into your version (which may differ from the list
above).
If "none" is specified for the first (or only) name, the
--whole-file option is forced on and no checksum
verification is performed on the transferred data. If
"none" is specified for the second (or only) name, the
--checksum option cannot be used.
The "auto" option is the default, where rsync bases its
algorithm choice on a negotiation between the client and
the server as follows:
When both sides of the transfer are at least 3.2.0, rsync
chooses the first algorithm in the client's list of
choices that is also in the server's list of choices. If
no common checksum choice is found, rsync exits with an
error. If the remote rsync is too old to support checksum
negotiation, a value is chosen based on the protocol
version (which chooses between MD5 and various flavors of
MD4 based on protocol age).
The default order can be customized by setting the
environment variable RSYNC_CHECKSUM_LIST to a space-
separated list of acceptable checksum names. If the
string contains a "&" character, it is separated into the
"client string & server string", otherwise the same string
applies to both. If the string (or string portion)
contains no non-whitespace characters, the default
checksum list is used. This method does not allow you to
specify the transfer checksum separately from the pre-
transfer checksum, and it discards "auto" and all unknown
checksum names. A list with only invalid names results in
a failed negotiation.
The use of the --checksum-choice option overrides this
environment list.
--one-file-system, -x
This tells rsync to avoid crossing a filesystem boundary
when recursing. This does not limit the user's ability to
specify items to copy from multiple filesystems, just
rsync's recursion through the hierarchy of each directory
that the user specified, and also the analogous recursion
on the receiving side during deletion. Also keep in mind
that rsync treats a "bind" mount to the same device as
being on the same filesystem.
If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point
directories from the copy. Otherwise, it includes an
empty directory at each mount-point it encounters (using
the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via --copy-
links or --copy-unsafe-links), a symlink to a directory on
another device is treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to
non-directories are unaffected by this option.
--existing, --ignore-non-existing
This tells rsync to skip creating files (including
directories) that do not exist yet on the destination. If
this option is combined with the --ignore-existing option,
no files will be updated (which can be useful if all you
want to do is delete extraneous files).
This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it
doesn't affect the data that goes into the file-lists, and
thus it doesn't affect deletions. It just limits the
files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
--ignore-existing
This tells rsync to skip updating files that already exist
on the destination (this does not ignore existing
directories, or nothing would get done). See also
--existing.
This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it
doesn't affect the data that goes into the file-lists, and
thus it doesn't affect deletions. It just limits the
files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
This option can be useful for those doing backups using
the --link-dest option when they need to continue a backup
run that got interrupted. Since a --link-dest run is
copied into a new directory hierarchy (when it is used
properly), using --ignore-existing will ensure that the
already-handled files don't get tweaked (which avoids a
change in permissions on the hard-linked files). This
does mean that this option is only looking at the existing
files in the destination hierarchy itself.
--remove-source-files
This tells rsync to remove from the sending side the files
(meaning non-directories) that are a part of the transfer
and have been successfully duplicated on the receiving
side.
Note that you should only use this option on source files
that are quiescent. If you are using this to move files
that show up in a particular directory over to another
host, make sure that the finished files get renamed into
the source directory, not directly written into it, so
that rsync can't possibly transfer a file that is not yet
fully written. If you can't first write the files into a
different directory, you should use a naming idiom that
lets rsync avoid transferring files that are not yet
finished (e.g. name the file "foo.new" when it is written,
rename it to "foo" when it is done, and then use the
option --exclude='*.new' for the rsync transfer).
Starting with 3.1.0, rsync will skip the sender-side
removal (and output an error) if the file's size or modify
time has not stayed unchanged.
--delete
This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but
only for the directories that are being synchronized. You
must have asked rsync to send the whole directory (e.g.
"dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard for the
directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is
expanded by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to
transfer individual files, not the files' parent
directory. Files that are excluded from the transfer are
also excluded from being deleted unless you use the
--delete-excluded option or mark the rules as only
matching on the sending side (see the include/exclude
modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect
unless --recursive was enabled. Beginning with 2.6.7,
deletions will also occur when --dirs (-d) is enabled, but
only for directories whose contents are being copied.
This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a
very good idea to first try a run using the --dry-run
option (-n) to see what files are going to be deleted.
If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the
deletion of any files at the destination will be
automatically disabled. This is to prevent temporary
filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the sending
side from causing a massive deletion of files on the
destination. You can override this with the --ignore-
errors option.
The --delete option may be combined with one of the
--delete-WHEN options without conflict, as well as
--delete-excluded. However, if none of the --delete-WHEN
options are specified, rsync will choose the --delete-
during algorithm when talking to rsync 3.0.0 or newer, and
the --delete-before algorithm when talking to an older
rsync. See also --delete-delay and --delete-after.
--delete-before
Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be
done before the transfer starts. See --delete (which is
implied) for more details on file-deletion.
Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem
is tight for space and removing extraneous files would
help to make the transfer possible. However, it does
introduce a delay before the start of the transfer, and
this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if
--timeout was specified). It also forces rsync to use the
old, non-incremental recursion algorithm that requires
rsync to scan all the files in the transfer into memory at
once (see --recursive).
--delete-during, --del
Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be
done incrementally as the transfer happens. The per-
directory delete scan is done right before each directory
is checked for updates, so it behaves like a more
efficient --delete-before, including doing the deletions
prior to any per-directory filter files being updated.
This option was first added in rsync version 2.6.4. See
--delete (which is implied) for more details on file-
deletion.
--delete-delay
Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be
computed during the transfer (like --delete-during), and
then removed after the transfer completes. This is useful
when combined with --delay-updates and/or --fuzzy, and is
more efficient than using --delete-after (but can behave
differently, since --delete-after computes the deletions
in a separate pass after all updates are done). If the
number of removed files overflows an internal buffer, a
temporary file will be created on the receiving side to
hold the names (it is removed while open, so you shouldn't
see it during the transfer). If the creation of the
temporary file fails, rsync will try to fall back to using
--delete-after (which it cannot do if --recursive is doing
an incremental scan). See --delete (which is implied) for
more details on file-deletion.
--delete-after
Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be
done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if
you are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of
the transfer and you want their exclusions to take effect
for the delete phase of the current transfer. It also
forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental recursion
algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the files in the
transfer into memory at once (see --recursive). See
--delete (which is implied) for more details on file-
deletion.
--delete-excluded
In addition to deleting the files on the receiving side
that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded
(see --exclude). See the FILTER RULES section for a way
to make individual exclusions behave this way on the
receiver, and for a way to protect files from --delete-
excluded. See --delete (which is implied) for more
details on file-deletion.
--ignore-missing-args
When rsync is first processing the explicitly requested
source files (e.g. command-line arguments or --files-from
entries), it is normally an error if the file cannot be
found. This option suppresses that error, and does not
try to transfer the file. This does not affect subsequent
vanished-file errors if a file was initially found to be
present and later is no longer there.
--delete-missing-args
This option takes the behavior of (the implied) --ignore-
missing-args option a step farther: each missing arg will
become a deletion request of the corresponding destination
file on the receiving side (should it exist). If the
destination file is a non-empty directory, it will only be
successfully deleted if --force or --delete are in effect.
Other than that, this option is independent of any other
type of delete processing.
The missing source files are represented by special file-
list entries which display as a "*missing" entry in the
--list-only output.
--ignore-errors
Tells --delete to go ahead and delete files even when
there are I/O errors.
--force
This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory
when it is to be replaced by a non-directory. This is
only relevant if deletions are not active (see --delete
for details).
Note for older rsync versions: --force used to still be
required when using --delete-after, and it used to be non-
functional unless the --recursive option was also enabled.
--max-delete=NUM
This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM files or
directories. If that limit is exceeded, all further
deletions are skipped through the end of the transfer. At
the end, rsync outputs a warning (including a count of the
skipped deletions) and exits with an error code of 25
(unless some more important error condition also
occurred).
Beginning with version 3.0.0, you may specify --max-
delete=0 to be warned about any extraneous files in the
destination without removing any of them. Older clients
interpreted this as "unlimited", so if you don't know what
version the client is, you can use the less obvious --max-
delete=-1 as a backward-compatible way to specify that no
deletions be allowed (though really old versions didn't
warn when the limit was exceeded).
--max-size=SIZE
This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is
larger than the specified SIZE. A numeric value can be
suffixed with a string to indicate the numeric units or
left unqualified to specify bytes. Feel free to use a
fractional value along with the units, such as --max-
size=1.5m.
This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it
doesn't affect the data that goes into the file-lists, and
thus it doesn't affect deletions. It just limits the
files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
The first letter of a units string can be B (bytes), K
(kilo), M (mega), G (giga), T (tera), or P (peta). If the
string is a single char or has "ib" added to it (e.g. "G"
or "GiB") then the units are multiples of 1024. If you
use a two-letter suffix that ends with a "B" (e.g. "kb")
then you get units that are multiples of 1000. The
string's letters can be any mix of upper and lower-case
that you want to use.
Finally, if the string ends with either "+1" or "-1", it
is offset by one byte in the indicated direction. The
largest possible value is usually 8192P-1.
Examples: --max-size=1.5mb-1 is 1499999 bytes, and --max-
size=2g+1 is 2147483649 bytes.
Note that rsync versions prior to 3.1.0 did not allow
--max-size=0.
--min-size=SIZE
This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is
smaller than the specified SIZE, which can help in not
transferring small, junk files. See the --max-size option
for a description of SIZE and other information.
Note that rsync versions prior to 3.1.0 did not allow
--min-size=0.
--max-alloc=SIZE
By default rsync limits an individual malloc/realloc to
about 1GB in size. For most people this limit works just
fine and prevents a protocol error causing rsync to
request massive amounts of memory. However, if you have
many millions of files in a transfer, a large amount of
server memory, and you don't want to split up your
transfer into multiple parts, you can increase the per-
allocation limit to something larger and rsync will
consume more memory.
Keep in mind that this is not a limit on the total size of
allocated memory. It is a sanity-check value for each
individual allocation.
See the --max-size option for a description of how SIZE
can be specified. The default suffix if none is given is
bytes.
Beginning in 3.2.3, a value of 0 specifies no limit.
You can set a default value using the environment variable
RSYNC_MAX_ALLOC using the same SIZE values as supported by
this option. If the remote rsync doesn't understand the
--max-alloc option, you can override an environmental
value by specifying --max-alloc=1g, which will make rsync
avoid sending the option to the remote side (because "1G"
is the default).
--block-size=SIZE, -B
This forces the block size used in rsync's delta-transfer
algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based
on the size of each file being updated. See the technical
report for details.
Beginning in 3.2.3 the SIZE can be specified with a suffix
as detailed in the --max-size option. Older versions only
accepted a byte count.
--rsh=COMMAND, -e
This option allows you to choose an alternative remote
shell program to use for communication between the local
and remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is
configured to use ssh by default, but you may prefer to
use rsh on a local network.
If this option is used with [user@]host::module/path, then
the remote shell COMMAND will be used to run an rsync
daemon on the remote host, and all data will be
transmitted through that remote shell connection, rather
than through a direct socket connection to a running rsync
daemon on the remote host. See the section "USING RSYNC-
DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" above.
Beginning with rsync 3.2.0, the RSYNC_PORT environment
variable will be set when a daemon connection is being
made via a remote-shell connection. It is set to 0 if the
default daemon port is being assumed, or it is set to the
value of the rsync port that was specified via either the
--port option or a non-empty port value in an rsync://
URL. This allows the script to discern if a non-default
port is being requested, allowing for things such as an
SSL or stunnel helper script to connect to a default or
alternate port.
Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided
that COMMAND is presented to rsync as a single argument.
You must use spaces (not tabs or other whitespace) to
separate the command and args from each other, and you can
use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an
argument (but not backslashes). Note that doubling a
single-quote inside a single-quoted string gives you a
single-quote; likewise for double-quotes (though you need
to pay attention to which quotes your shell is parsing and
which quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
-e 'ssh -p 2234'
-e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"'
(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-
specific connect options in their .ssh/config file.)
You can also choose the remote shell program using the
RSYNC_RSH environment variable, which accepts the same
range of values as -e.
See also the --blocking-io option which is affected by
this option.
--rsync-path=PROGRAM
Use this to specify what program is to be run on the
remote machine to start-up rsync. Often used when rsync
is not in the default remote-shell's path (e.g. --rsync-
path=/usr/local/bin/rsync). Note that PROGRAM is run with
the help of a shell, so it can be any program, script, or
command sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does not
corrupt the standard-in & standard-out that rsync is using
to communicate.
One tricky example is to set a different default directory
on the remote machine for use with the --relative option.
For instance:
rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" host:c/d /e/
--remote-option=OPTION, -M
This option is used for more advanced situations where you
want certain effects to be limited to one side of the
transfer only. For instance, if you want to pass --log-
file=FILE and --fake-super to the remote system, specify
it like this:
rsync -av -M --log-file=foo -M--fake-super src/ dest/
If you want to have an option affect only the local side
of a transfer when it normally affects both sides, send
its negation to the remote side. Like this:
rsync -av -x -M--no-x src/ dest/
Be cautious using this, as it is possible to toggle an
option that will cause rsync to have a different idea
about what data to expect next over the socket, and that
will make it fail in a cryptic fashion.
Note that it is best to use a separate --remote-option for
each option you want to pass. This makes your usage
compatible with the --protect-args option. If that option
is off, any spaces in your remote options will be split by
the remote shell unless you take steps to protect them.
When performing a local transfer, the "local" side is the
sender and the "remote" side is the receiver.
Note some versions of the popt option-parsing library have
a bug in them that prevents you from using an adjacent arg
with an equal in it next to a short option letter (e.g.
-M--log-file=/tmp/foo). If this bug affects your version
of popt, you can use the version of popt that is included
with rsync.
--cvs-exclude, -C
This is a useful shorthand for excluding a broad range of
files that you often don't want to transfer between
systems. It uses a similar algorithm to CVS to determine
if a file should be ignored.
The exclude list is initialized to exclude the following
items (these initial items are marked as perishable -- see
the FILTER RULES section):
RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS
.make.state .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old
*.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj
*.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/ .git/ .hg/ .bzr/
then, files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the
list and any files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment
variable (all cvsignore names are delimited by
whitespace).
Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same
directory as a .cvsignore file and matches one of the
patterns listed therein. Unlike rsync's filter/exclude
files, these patterns are split on whitespace. See the
cvs(1) manual for more information.
If you're combining -C with your own --filter rules, you
should note that these CVS excludes are appended at the
end of your own rules, regardless of where the -C was
placed on the command-line. This makes them a lower
priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you
want to control where these CVS excludes get inserted into
your filter rules, you should omit the -C as a command-
line option and use a combination of --filter=:C and
--filter=-C (either on your command-line or by putting the
":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other
rules). The first option turns on the per-directory
scanning for the .cvsignore file. The second option does
a one-time import of the CVS excludes mentioned above.
--filter=RULE, -f
This option allows you to add rules to selectively exclude
certain files from the list of files to be transferred.
This is most useful in combination with a recursive
transfer.
You may use as many --filter options on the command line
as you like to build up the list of files to exclude. If
the filter contains whitespace, be sure to quote it so
that the shell gives the rule to rsync as a single
argument. The text below also mentions that you can use
an underscore to replace the space that separates a rule
from its arg.
See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on
this option.
-F The -F option is a shorthand for adding two --filter rules
to your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand
for this rule:
--filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter
files that have been sprinkled through the hierarchy and
use their rules to filter the files in the transfer. If
-F is repeated, it is a shorthand for this rule:
--filter='exclude .rsync-filter'
This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from
the transfer.
See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on
how these options work.
--exclude=PATTERN
This option is a simplified form of the --filter option
that defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow the
full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on
this option.
--exclude-from=FILE
This option is related to the --exclude option, but it
specifies a FILE that contains exclude patterns (one per
line). Blank lines in the file and lines starting with
';' or '#' are ignored. If FILE is '-', the list will be
read from standard input.
--include=PATTERN
This option is a simplified form of the --filter option
that defaults to an include rule and does not allow the
full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on
this option.
--include-from=FILE
This option is related to the --include option, but it
specifies a FILE that contains include patterns (one per
line). Blank lines in the file and lines starting with
';' or '#' are ignored. If FILE is '-', the list will be
read from standard input.
--files-from=FILE
Using this option allows you to specify the exact list of
files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or '-'
for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior
of rsync to make transferring just the specified files and
directories easier:
o The --relative (-R) option is implied, which
preserves the path information that is specified
for each item in the file (use --no-relative or
--no-R if you want to turn that off).
o The --dirs (-d) option is implied, which will
create directories specified in the list on the
destination rather than noisily skipping them (use
--no-dirs or --no-d if you want to turn that off).
o The --archive (-a) option's behavior does not imply
--recursive (-r), so specify it explicitly, if you
want it.
o These side-effects change the default state of
rsync, so the position of the --files-from option
on the command-line has no bearing on how other
options are parsed (e.g. -a works the same before
or after --files-from, as does --no-R and all other
options).
The filenames that are read from the FILE are all relative
to the source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and
no ".." references are allowed to go higher than the
source dir. For example, take this command:
rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup
If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"),
the /usr/bin directory will be created as /backup/bin on
the remote host. If it contains "bin/" (note the trailing
slash), the immediate contents of the directory would also
be sent (without needing to be explicitly mentioned in the
file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases, if
the -r option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy
would also be transferred (keep in mind that -r needs to
be specified explicitly with --files-from, since it is not
implied by -a). Also note that the effect of the (enabled
by default) --relative option is to duplicate only the
path info that is read from the file -- it does not force
the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this
case).
In addition, the --files-from file can be read from the
remote host instead of the local host if you specify a
"host:" in front of the file (the host must match one end
of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can specify just a
prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
transfer". For example:
rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy
This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-
list file that was located on the remote "src" host.
If the --iconv and --protect-args options are specified
and the --files-from filenames are being sent from one
host to another, the filenames will be translated from the
sending host's charset to the receiving host's charset.
NOTE: sorting the list of files in the --files-from input
helps rsync to be more efficient, as it will avoid re-
visiting the path elements that are shared between
adjacent entries. If the input is not sorted, some path
elements (implied directories) may end up being scanned
multiple times, and rsync will eventually unduplicate them
after they get turned into file-list elements.
--from0, -0
This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a
file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL,
CR, or CR+LF. This affects --exclude-from, --include-
from, --files-from, and any merged files specified in a
--filter rule. It does not affect --cvs-exclude (since
all names read from a .cvsignore file are split on
whitespace).
--protect-args, -s
This option sends all filenames and most options to the
remote rsync without allowing the remote shell to
interpret them. This means that spaces are not split in
names, and any non-wildcard special characters are not
translated (such as ~, $, ;, &, etc.). Wildcards are
expanded on the remote host by rsync (instead of the shell
doing it).
If you use this option with --iconv, the args related to
the remote side will also be translated from the local to
the remote character-set. The translation happens before
wild-cards are expanded. See also the --files-from
option.
You may also control this option via the
RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS environment variable. If this variable
has a non-zero value, this option will be enabled by
default, otherwise it will be disabled by default. Either
state is overridden by a manually specified positive or
negative version of this option (note that --no-s and
--no-protect-args are the negative versions). Since this
option was first introduced in 3.0.0, you'll need to make
sure it's disabled if you ever need to interact with a
remote rsync that is older than that.
Rsync can also be configured (at build time) to have this
option enabled by default (with is overridden by both the
environment and the command-line). Run rsync --version to
check if this is the case, as it will display "default
protect-args" or "optional protect-args" depending on how
it was compiled.
This option will eventually become a new default setting
at some as-yet-undetermined point in the future.
--copy-as=USER[:GROUP]
This option instructs rsync to use the USER and (if
specified after a colon) the GROUP for the copy
operations. This only works if the user that is running
rsync has the ability to change users. If the group is
not specified then the user's default groups are used.
This option can help to reduce the risk of an rsync being
run as root into or out of a directory that might have
live changes happening to it and you want to make sure
that root-level read or write actions of system files are
not possible. While you could alternatively run all of
rsync as the specified user, sometimes you need the root-
level host-access credentials to be used, so this allows
rsync to drop root for the copying part of the operation
after the remote-shell or daemon connection is
established.
The option only affects one side of the transfer unless
the transfer is local, in which case it affects both
sides. Use the --remote-option to affect the remote side,
such as -M--copy-as=joe. For a local transfer, the lsh
(or lsh.sh) support file provides a local-shell helper
script that can be used to allow a "localhost:" or "lh:"
host-spec to be specified without needing to setup any
remote shells, allowing you to specify remote options that
affect the side of the transfer that is using the host-
spec (and using hostname "lh" avoids the overriding of the
remote directory to the user's home dir).
For example, the following rsync writes the local files as
user "joe":
sudo rsync -aiv --copy-as=joe host1:backups/joe/ /home/joe/
This makes all files owned by user "joe", limits the
groups to those that are available to that user, and makes
it impossible for the joe user to do a timed exploit of
the path to induce a change to a file that the joe user
has no permissions to change.
The following command does a local copy into the "dest/"
dir as user "joe" (assuming you've installed support/lsh
into a dir on your $PATH):
sudo rsync -aive lsh -M--copy-as=joe src/ lh:dest/
--temp-dir=DIR, -T
This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a scratch
directory when creating temporary copies of the files
transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior
is to create each temporary file in the same directory as
the associated destination file. Beginning with rsync
3.1.1, the temp-file names inside the specified DIR will
not be prefixed with an extra dot (though they will still
have a random suffix added).
This option is most often used when the receiving disk
partition does not have enough free space to hold a copy
of the largest file in the transfer. In this case (i.e.
when the scratch directory is on a different disk
partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received
temporary file over the top of the associated destination
file, but instead must copy it into place. Rsync does
this by copying the file over the top of the destination
file, which means that the destination file will contain
truncated data during this copy. If this were not done
this way (even if the destination file were first removed,
the data locally copied to a temporary file in the
destination directory, and then renamed into place) it
would be possible for the old file to continue taking up
disk space (if someone had it open), and thus there might
not be enough room to fit the new version on the disk at
the same time.
If you are using this option for reasons other than a
shortage of disk space, you may wish to combine it with
the --delay-updates option, which will ensure that all
copied files get put into subdirectories in the
destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer.
If you don't have enough room to duplicate all the
arriving files on the destination partition, another way
to tell rsync that you aren't overly concerned about disk
space is to use the --partial-dir option with a relative
path; because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off
a copy of a single file in a subdir in the destination
hierarchy, rsync will use the partial-dir as a staging
area to bring over the copied file, and then rename it
into place from there. (Specifying a --partial-dir with an
absolute path does not have this side-effect.)
--fuzzy, -y
This option tells rsync that it should look for a basis
file for any destination file that is missing. The
current algorithm looks in the same directory as the
destination file for either a file that has an identical
size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If
found, rsync uses the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up
the transfer.
If the option is repeated, the fuzzy scan will also be
done in any matching alternate destination directories
that are specified via --compare-dest, --copy-dest, or
--link-dest.
Note that the use of the --delete option might get rid of
any potential fuzzy-match files, so either use --delete-
after or specify some filename exclusions if you need to
prevent this.
--compare-dest=DIR
This option instructs rsync to use DIR on the destination
machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in
the destination directory). If a file is found in DIR
that is identical to the sender's file, the file will NOT
be transferred to the destination directory. This is
useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
have changed from an earlier backup. This option is
typically used to copy into an empty (or newly created)
directory.
Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple --compare-dest
directories may be provided, which will cause rsync to
search the list in the order specified for an exact match.
If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a
local copy is made and the attributes updated. If a match
is not found, a basis file from one of the DIRs will be
selected to try to speed up the transfer.
If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the
destination directory. See also --copy-dest and --link-
dest.
NOTE: beginning with version 3.1.0, rsync will remove a
file from a non-empty destination hierarchy if an exact
match is found in one of the compare-dest hierarchies
(making the end result more closely match a fresh copy).
--copy-dest=DIR
This option behaves like --compare-dest, but rsync will
also copy unchanged files found in DIR to the destination
directory using a local copy. This is useful for doing
transfers to a new destination while leaving existing
files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all
files have been successfully transferred.
Multiple --copy-dest directories may be provided, which
will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
for an unchanged file. If a match is not found, a basis
file from one of the DIRs will be selected to try to speed
up the transfer.
If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the
destination directory. See also --compare-dest and
--link-dest.
--link-dest=DIR
This option behaves like --copy-dest, but unchanged files
are hard linked from DIR to the destination directory.
The files must be identical in all preserved attributes
(e.g. permissions, possibly ownership) in order for the
files to be linked together. An example:
rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
If file's aren't linking, double-check their attributes.
Also check if some attributes are getting forced outside
of rsync's control, such a mount option that squishes root
to a single user, or mounts a removable drive with generic
ownership (such as OS X's "Ignore ownership on this
volume" option).
Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple --link-dest
directories may be provided, which will cause rsync to
search the list in the order specified for an exact match
(there is a limit of 20 such directories). If a match is
found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is
made and the attributes updated. If a match is not found,
a basis file from one of the DIRs will be selected to try
to speed up the transfer.
This option works best when copying into an empty
destination hierarchy, as existing files may get their
attributes tweaked, and that can affect alternate
destination files via hard-links. Also, itemizing of
changes can get a bit muddled. Note that prior to version
3.1.0, an alternate-directory exact match would never be
found (nor linked into the destination) when a destination
file already exists.
Note that if you combine this option with --ignore-times,
rsync will not link any files together because it only
links identical files together as a substitute for
transferring the file, never as an additional check after
the file is updated.
If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the
destination directory. See also --compare-dest and
--copy-dest.
Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that
could prevent --link-dest from working properly for a non-
super-user when -o was specified (or implied by -a). You
can work-around this bug by avoiding the -o option when
sending to an old rsync.
--compress, -z
With this option, rsync compresses the file data as it is
sent to the destination machine, which reduces the amount
of data being transmitted -- something that is useful over
a slow connection.
Rsync supports multiple compression methods and will
choose one for you unless you force the choice using the
--compress-choice (--zc) option.
Run rsync --version to see the default compress list
compiled into your version.
When both sides of the transfer are at least 3.2.0, rsync
chooses the first algorithm in the client's list of
choices that is also in the server's list of choices. If
no common compress choice is found, rsync exits with an
error. If the remote rsync is too old to support checksum
negotiation, its list is assumed to be "zlib".
The default order can be customized by setting the
environment variable RSYNC_COMPRESS_LIST to a space-
separated list of acceptable compression names. If the
string contains a "&" character, it is separated into the
"client string & server string", otherwise the same string
applies to both. If the string (or string portion)
contains no non-whitespace characters, the default
compress list is used. Any unknown compression names are
discarded from the list, but a list with only invalid
names results in a failed negotiation.
There are some older rsync versions that were configured
to reject a -z option and require the use of -zz because
their compression library was not compatible with the
default zlib compression method. You can usually ignore
this weirdness unless the rsync server complains and tells
you to specify -zz.
See also the --skip-compress option for the default list
of file suffixes that will be transferred with no (or
minimal) compression.
--compress-choice=STR, --zc=STR
This option can be used to override the automatic
negotiation of the compression algorithm that occurs when
--compress is used. The option implies --compress unless
"none" was specified, which instead implies --no-compress.
The compression options that you may be able to use are:
o zstd
o lz4
o zlibx
o zlib
o none
Run rsync --version to see the default compress list
compiled into your version (which may differ from the list
above).
Note that if you see an error about an option named --old-
compress or --new-compress, this is rsync trying to send
the --compress-choice=zlib or --compress-choice=zlibx
option in a backward-compatible manner that more rsync
versions understand. This error indicates that the older
rsync version on the server will not allow you to force
the compression type.
Note that the "zlibx" compression algorithm is just the
"zlib" algorithm with matched data excluded from the
compression stream (to try to make it more compatible with
an external zlib implementation).
--compress-level=NUM, --zl=NUM
Explicitly set the compression level to use (see
--compress, -z) instead of letting it default. The
--compress option is implied as long as the level chosen
is not a "don't compress" level for the compression
algorithm that is in effect (e.g. zlib compression treats
level 0 as "off").
The level values vary depending on the checksum in effect.
Because rsync will negotiate a checksum choice by default
(when the remote rsync is new enough), it can be good to
combine this option with a --compress-choice (--zc) option
unless you're sure of the choice in effect. For example:
rsync -aiv --zc=zstd --zl=22 host:src/ dest/
For zlib & zlibx compression the valid values are from 1
to 9 with 6 being the default. Specifying 0 turns
compression off, and specifying -1 chooses the default of
6.
For zstd compression the valid values are from -131072 to
22 with 3 being the default. Specifying 0 chooses the
default of 3.
For lz4 compression there are no levels, so the value is
always 0.
If you specify a too-large or too-small value, the number
is silently limited to a valid value. This allows you to
specify something like --zl=999999999 and be assured that
you'll end up with the maximum compression level no matter
what algorithm was chosen.
If you want to know the compression level that is in
effect, specify --debug=nstr to see the "negotiated
string" results. This will report something like
"Client compress: zstd (level 3)" (along with the checksum
choice in effect).
--skip-compress=LIST
Override the list of file suffixes that will be compressed
as little as possible. Rsync sets the compression level
on a per-file basis based on the file's suffix. If the
compression algorithm has an "off" level (such as
zlib/zlibx) then no compression occurs for those files.
Other algorithms that support changing the streaming level
on-the-fly will have the level minimized to reduces the
CPU usage as much as possible for a matching file. At
this time, only zlib & zlibx compression support this
changing of levels on a per-file basis.
The LIST should be one or more file suffixes (without the
dot) separated by slashes (/). You may specify an empty
string to indicate that no files should be skipped.
Simple character-class matching is supported: each must
consist of a list of letters inside the square brackets
(e.g. no special classes, such as "[:alpha:]", are
supported, and '-' has no special meaning).
The characters asterisk (*) and question-mark (?) have no
special meaning.
Here's an example that specifies 6 suffixes to skip (since
1 of the 5 rules matches 2 suffixes):
--skip-compress=gz/jpg/mp[34]/7z/bz2
The default file suffixes in the skip-compress list in
this version of rsync are:
3g2 3gp 7z aac ace apk avi bz2 deb dmg ear f4v flac
flv gpg gz iso jar jpeg jpg lrz lz lz4 lzma lzo m1a
m1v m2a m2ts m2v m4a m4b m4p m4r m4v mka mkv mov mp1
mp2 mp3 mp4 mpa mpeg mpg mpv mts odb odf odg odi odm
odp ods odt oga ogg ogm ogv ogx opus otg oth otp ots
ott oxt png qt rar rpm rz rzip spx squashfs sxc sxd
sxg sxm sxw sz tbz tbz2 tgz tlz ts txz tzo vob war
webm webp xz z zip zst
This list will be replaced by your --skip-compress list in
all but one situation: a copy from a daemon rsync will add
your skipped suffixes to its list of non-compressing files
(and its list may be configured to a different default).
--numeric-ids
With this option rsync will transfer numeric group and
user IDs rather than using user and group names and
mapping them at both ends.
By default rsync will use the username and groupname to
determine what ownership to give files. The special uid 0
and the special group 0 are never mapped via user/group
names even if the --numeric-ids option is not specified.
If a user or group has no name on the source system or it
has no match on the destination system, then the numeric
ID from the source system is used instead. See also the
comments on the "use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf
manpage for information on how the chroot setting affects
rsync's ability to look up the names of the users and
groups and what you can do about it.
--usermap=STRING, --groupmap=STRING
These options allow you to specify users and groups that
should be mapped to other values by the receiving side.
The STRING is one or more FROM:TO pairs of values
separated by commas. Any matching FROM value from the
sender is replaced with a TO value from the receiver. You
may specify usernames or user IDs for the FROM and TO
values, and the FROM value may also be a wild-card string,
which will be matched against the sender's names (wild-
cards do NOT match against ID numbers, though see below
for why a '*' matches everything). You may instead
specify a range of ID numbers via an inclusive range: LOW-
HIGH. For example:
--usermap=0-99:nobody,wayne:admin,*:normal --groupmap=usr:1,1:usr
The first match in the list is the one that is used. You
should specify all your user mappings using a single
--usermap option, and/or all your group mappings using a
single --groupmap option.
Note that the sender's name for the 0 user and group are
not transmitted to the receiver, so you should either
match these values using a 0, or use the names in effect
on the receiving side (typically "root"). All other FROM
names match those in use on the sending side. All TO
names match those in use on the receiving side.
Any IDs that do not have a name on the sending side are
treated as having an empty name for the purpose of
matching. This allows them to be matched via a "*" or
using an empty name. For instance:
--usermap=:nobody --groupmap=*:nobody
When the --numeric-ids option is used, the sender does not
send any names, so all the IDs are treated as having an
empty name. This means that you will need to specify
numeric FROM values if you want to map these nameless IDs
to different values.
For the --usermap option to have any effect, the -o
(--owner) option must be used (or implied), and the
receiver will need to be running as a super-user (see also
the --fake-super option). For the --groupmap option to
have any effect, the -g (--groups) option must be used (or
implied), and the receiver will need to have permissions
to set that group.
If your shell complains about the wildcards, use
--protect-args (-s).
--chown=USER:GROUP
This option forces all files to be owned by USER with
group GROUP. This is a simpler interface than using
--usermap and --groupmap directly, but it is implemented
using those options internally, so you cannot mix them.
If either the USER or GROUP is empty, no mapping for the
omitted user/group will occur. If GROUP is empty, the
trailing colon may be omitted, but if USER is empty, a
leading colon must be supplied.
If you specify "--chown=foo:bar", this is exactly the same
as specifying "--usermap=*:foo --groupmap=*:bar", only
easier. If your shell complains about the wildcards, use
--protect-args (-s).
--timeout=SECONDS
This option allows you to set a maximum I/O timeout in
seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no
timeout.
--contimeout=SECONDS
This option allows you to set the amount of time that
rsync will wait for its connection to an rsync daemon to
succeed. If the timeout is reached, rsync exits with an
error.
--address=ADDRESS
By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
connecting to an rsync daemon. The --address option
allows you to specify a specific IP address (or hostname)
to bind to. See also this option in the --daemon mode
section.
--port=PORT
This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use rather
than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are
using the double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an
rsync daemon (since the URL syntax has a way to specify
the port as a part of the URL). See also this option in
the --daemon mode section.
--sockopts=OPTIONS
This option can provide endless fun for people who like to
tune their systems to the utmost degree. You can set all
sorts of socket options which may make transfers faster
(or slower!). Read the man page for the setsockopt()
system call for details on some of the options you may be
able to set. By default no special socket options are
set. This only affects direct socket connections to a
remote rsync daemon.
This option also exists in the --daemon mode section.
--blocking-io
This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching a
remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh
or remsh, rsync defaults to using blocking I/O, otherwise
it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that ssh
prefers non-blocking I/O.)
--outbuf=MODE
This sets the output buffering mode. The mode can be None
(aka Unbuffered), Line, or Block (aka Full). You may
specify as little as a single letter for the mode, and use
upper or lower case.
The main use of this option is to change Full buffering to
Line buffering when rsync's output is going to a file or
pipe.
--itemize-changes, -i
Requests a simple itemized list of the changes that are
being made to each file, including attribute changes.
This is exactly the same as specifying --out-
format='%i %n%L'. If you repeat the option, unchanged
files will also be output, but only if the receiving rsync
is at least version 2.6.7 (you can use -vv with older
versions of rsync, but that also turns on the output of
other verbose messages).
The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 11 letters
long. The general format is like the string YXcstpoguax,
where Y is replaced by the type of update being done, X is
replaced by the file-type, and the other letters represent
attributes that may be output if they are being modified.
The update types that replace the Y are as follows:
o A < means that a file is being transferred to the
remote host (sent).
o A > means that a file is being transferred to the
local host (received).
o A c means that a local change/creation is occurring
for the item (such as the creation of a directory
or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
o A h means that the item is a hard link to another
item (requires --hard-links).
o A . means that the item is not being updated
(though it might have attributes that are being
modified).
o A * means that the rest of the itemized-output area
contains a message (e.g. "deleting").
The file-types that replace the X are: f for a file, a d
for a directory, an L for a symlink, a D for a device, and
a S for a special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
The other letters in the string indicate if some
attributes of the file have changed, as follows:
o "." - the attribute is unchanged.
o "+" - the file is newly created.
o " " - all the attributes are unchanged (all dots
turn to spaces).
o "?" - the change is unknown (when the remote rsync
is old).
o A letter indicates an attribute is being updated.
The attribute that is associated with each letter is as
follows:
o A c means either that a regular file has a
different checksum (requires --checksum) or that a
symlink, device, or special file has a changed
value. Note that if you are sending files to an
rsync prior to 3.0.1, this change flag will be
present only for checksum-differing regular files.
o A s means the size of a regular file is different
and will be updated by the file transfer.
o A t means the modification time is different and is
being updated to the sender's value (requires
--times). An alternate value of T means that the
modification time will be set to the transfer time,
which happens when a file/symlink/device is updated
without --times and when a symlink is changed and
the receiver can't set its time. (Note: when using
an rsync 3.0.0 client, you might see the s flag
combined with t instead of the proper T flag for
this time-setting failure.)
o A p means the permissions are different and are
being updated to the sender's value (requires
--perms).
o An o means the owner is different and is being
updated to the sender's value (requires --owner and
super-user privileges).
o A g means the group is different and is being
updated to the sender's value (requires --group and
the authority to set the group).
o A u|n|b indicates the following information: u
means the access (use) time is different and is
being updated to the sender's value (requires
--atimes); n means the create time (newness) is
different and is being updated to the sender's
value (requires --crtimes); b means that both the
access and create times are being updated.
o The a means that the ACL information is being
changed.
o The x means that the extended attribute information
is being changed.
One other output is possible: when deleting files, the
"%i" will output the string "*deleting" for each item that
is being removed (assuming that you are talking to a
recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
outputting them as a verbose message).
--out-format=FORMAT
This allows you to specify exactly what the rsync client
outputs to the user on a per-update basis. The format is
a text string containing embedded single-character escape
sequences prefixed with a percent (%) character. A
default format of "%n%L" is assumed if either --info=name
or -v is specified (this tells you just the name of the
file and, if the item is a link, where it points). For a
full list of the possible escape characters, see the
"log format" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
Specifying the --out-format option implies the --info=name
option, which will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets
updated in a significant way (a transferred file, a
recreated symlink/device, or a touched directory). In
addition, if the itemize-changes escape (%i) is included
in the string (e.g. if the --itemize-changes option was
used), the logging of names increases to mention any item
that is changed in any way (as long as the receiving side
is at least 2.6.4). See the --itemize-changes option for
a description of the output of "%i".
Rsync will output the out-format string prior to a file's
transfer unless one of the transfer-statistic escapes is
requested, in which case the logging is done at the end of
the file's transfer. When this late logging is in effect
and --progress is also specified, rsync will also output
the name of the file being transferred prior to its
progress information (followed, of course, by the out-
format output).
--log-file=FILE
This option causes rsync to log what it is doing to a
file. This is similar to the logging that a daemon does,
but can be requested for the client side and/or the server
side of a non-daemon transfer. If specified as a client
option, transfer logging will be enabled with a default
format of "%i %n%L". See the --log-file-format option if
you wish to override this.
Here's a example command that requests the remote side to
log what is happening:
rsync -av --remote-option=--log-file=/tmp/rlog src/ dest/
This is very useful if you need to debug why a connection
is closing unexpectedly.
--log-file-format=FORMAT
This allows you to specify exactly what per-update logging
is put into the file specified by the --log-file option
(which must also be specified for this option to have any
effect). If you specify an empty string, updated files
will not be mentioned in the log file. For a list of the
possible escape characters, see the "log format" setting
in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
The default FORMAT used if --log-file is specified and
this option is not is '%i %n%L'.
--stats
This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics on
the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective
rsync's delta-transfer algorithm is for your data. This
option is equivalent to --info=stats2 if combined with 0
or 1 -v options, or --info=stats3 if combined with 2 or
more -v options.
The current statistics are as follows:
o Number of files is the count of all "files" (in the
generic sense), which includes directories,
symlinks, etc. The total count will be followed by
a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-
zero). For example: "(reg: 5, dir: 3, link: 2,
dev: 1, special: 1)" lists the totals for regular
files, directories, symlinks, devices, and special
files. If any of value is 0, it is completely
omitted from the list.
o Number of created files is the count of how many
"files" (generic sense) were created (as opposed to
updated). The total count will be followed by a
list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-
zero).
o Number of deleted files is the count of how many
"files" (generic sense) were created (as opposed to
updated). The total count will be followed by a
list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-
zero). Note that this line is only output if
deletions are in effect, and only if protocol 31 is
being used (the default for rsync 3.1.x).
o Number of regular files transferred is the count of
normal files that were updated via rsync's delta-
transfer algorithm, which does not include dirs,
symlinks, etc. Note that rsync 3.1.0 added the
word "regular" into this heading.
o Total file size is the total sum of all file sizes
in the transfer. This does not count any size for
directories or special files, but does include the
size of symlinks.
o Total transferred file size is the total sum of all
files sizes for just the transferred files.
o Literal data is how much unmatched file-update data
we had to send to the receiver for it to recreate
the updated files.
o Matched data is how much data the receiver got
locally when recreating the updated files.
o File list size is how big the file-list data was
when the sender sent it to the receiver. This is
smaller than the in-memory size for the file list
due to some compressing of duplicated data when
rsync sends the list.
o File list generation time is the number of seconds
that the sender spent creating the file list. This
requires a modern rsync on the sending side for
this to be present.
o File list transfer time is the number of seconds
that the sender spent sending the file list to the
receiver.
o Total bytes sent is the count of all the bytes that
rsync sent from the client side to the server side.
o Total bytes received is the count of all non-
message bytes that rsync received by the client
side from the server side. "Non-message" bytes
means that we don't count the bytes for a verbose
message that the server sent to us, which makes the
stats more consistent.
--8-bit-output, -8
This tells rsync to leave all high-bit characters
unescaped in the output instead of trying to test them to
see if they're valid in the current locale and escaping
the invalid ones. All control characters (but never tabs)
are always escaped, regardless of this option's setting.
The escape idiom that started in 2.6.7 is to output a
literal backslash (\) and a hash (#), followed by exactly
3 octal digits. For example, a newline would output as
"\#012". A literal backslash that is in a filename is not
escaped unless it is followed by a hash and 3 digits
(0-9).
--human-readable, -h
Output numbers in a more human-readable format. There are
3 possible levels: (1) output numbers with a separator
between each set of 3 digits (either a comma or a period,
depending on if the decimal point is represented by a
period or a comma); (2) output numbers in units of 1000
(with a character suffix for larger units -- see below);
(3) output numbers in units of 1024.
The default is human-readable level 1. Each -h option
increases the level by one. You can take the level down
to 0 (to output numbers as pure digits) by specifying the
--no-human-readable (--no-h) option.
The unit letters that are appended in levels 2 and 3 are:
K (kilo), M (mega), G (giga), T (tera), or P (peta). For
example, a 1234567-byte file would output as 1.23M in
level-2 (assuming that a period is your local decimal
point).
Backward compatibility note: versions of rsync prior to
3.1.0 do not support human-readable level 1, and they
default to level 0. Thus, specifying one or two -h
options will behave in a comparable manner in old and new
versions as long as you didn't specify a --no-h option
prior to one or more -h options. See the --list-only
option for one difference.
--partial
By default, rsync will delete any partially transferred
file if the transfer is interrupted. In some
circumstances it is more desirable to keep partially
transferred files. Using the --partial option tells rsync
to keep the partial file which should make a subsequent
transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
--partial-dir=DIR
A better way to keep partial files than the --partial
option is to specify a DIR that will be used to hold the
partial data (instead of writing it out to the destination
file). On the next transfer, rsync will use a file found
in this dir as data to speed up the resumption of the
transfer and then delete it after it has served its
purpose.
Note that if --whole-file is specified (or implied), any
partial-dir file that is found for a file that is being
updated will simply be removed (since rsync is sending
files without using rsync's delta-transfer algorithm).
Rsync will create the DIR if it is missing (just the last
dir -- not the whole path). This makes it easy to use a
relative path (such as "--partial-dir=.rsync-partial") to
have rsync create the partial-directory in the destination
file's directory when needed, and then remove it again
when the partial file is deleted. Note that the directory
is only removed if it is a relative pathname, as it is
expected that an absolute path is to a directory that is
reserved for partial-dir work.
If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync
will add an exclude rule at the end of all your existing
excludes. This will prevent the sending of any partial-
dir files that may exist on the sending side, and will
also prevent the untimely deletion of partial-dir items on
the receiving side. An example: the above --partial-dir
option would add the equivalent of "-f '-p .rsync-
partial/'" at the end of any other filter rules.
If you are supplying your own exclude rules, you may need
to add your own exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-
dir because (1) the auto-added rule may be ineffective at
the end of your other rules, or (2) you may wish to
override rsync's exclude choice. For instance, if you
want to make rsync clean-up any left-over partial-dirs
that may be lying around, you should specify --delete-
after and add a "risk" filter rule, e.g. -f 'R .rsync-
partial/'. (Avoid using --delete-before or --delete-during
unless you don't need rsync to use any of the left-over
partial-dir data during the current run.)
IMPORTANT: the --partial-dir should not be writable by
other users or it is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
You can also set the partial-dir value the
RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment variable. Setting this in
the environment does not force --partial to be enabled,
but rather it affects where partial files go when
--partial is specified. For instance, instead of using
--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp along with --progress, you could
set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your environment and
then just use the -P option to turn on the use of the
.rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only times that
the --partial option does not look for this environment
value are (1) when --inplace was specified (since
--inplace conflicts with --partial-dir), and (2) when
--delay-updates was specified (see below).
When a modern rsync resumes the transfer of a file in the
partial-dir, that partial file is now updated in-place
instead of creating yet another tmp-file copy (so it maxes
out at dest + tmp instead of dest + partial + tmp). This
requires both ends of the transfer to be at least version
3.2.0.
For the purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options"
setting, --partial-dir does not imply --partial. This is
so that a refusal of the --partial option can be used to
disallow the overwriting of destination files with a
partial transfer, while still allowing the safer idiom
provided by --partial-dir.
--delay-updates
This option puts the temporary file from each updated file
into a holding directory until the end of the transfer, at
which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
succession. This attempts to make the updating of the
files a little more atomic. By default the files are
placed into a directory named .~tmp~ in each file's
destination directory, but if you've specified the
--partial-dir option, that directory will be used instead.
See the comments in the --partial-dir section for a
discussion of how this .~tmp~ dir will be excluded from
the transfer, and what you can do if you want rsync to
cleanup old .~tmp~ dirs that might be lying around.
Conflicts with --inplace and --append.
This option implies --no-inc-recursive since it needs the
full file list in memory in order to be able to iterate
over it at the end.
This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one
bit per file transferred) and also requires enough free
disk space on the receiving side to hold an additional
copy of all the updated files. Note also that you should
not use an absolute path to --partial-dir unless (1) there
is no chance of any of the files in the transfer having
the same name (since all the updated files will be put
into a single directory if the path is absolute) and (2)
there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the
delayed updates will fail if they can't be renamed into
place).
See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support"
subdir for an update algorithm that is even more atomic
(it uses --link-dest and a parallel hierarchy of files).
--prune-empty-dirs, -m
This option tells the receiving rsync to get rid of empty
directories from the file-list, including nested
directories that have no non-directory children. This is
useful for avoiding the creation of a bunch of useless
directories when the sending rsync is recursively scanning
a hierarchy of files using include/exclude/filter rules.
Note that the use of transfer rules, such as the --min-
size option, does not affect what goes into the file list,
and thus does not leave directories empty, even if none of
the files in a directory match the transfer rule.
Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this
option also affects what directories get deleted when a
delete is active. However, keep in mind that excluded
files and directories can prevent existing items from
being deleted due to an exclude both hiding source files
and protecting destination files. See the perishable
filter-rule option for how to avoid this.
You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories
from the file-list by using a global "protect" filter.
For instance, this option would ensure that the directory
"emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
--filter 'protect emptydir/'
Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a
hierarchy, only creating the necessary destination
directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures that any
superfluous files and directories in the destination are
removed (note the hide filter of non-directories being
used instead of an exclude):
rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide,! */' src/ dest
If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination
files, the more time-honored options of
--include='*/' --exclude='*' would work fine in place of
the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
--progress
This option tells rsync to print information showing the
progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
something to watch. With a modern rsync this is the same
as specifying --info=flist2,name,progress, but any user-
supplied settings for those info flags takes precedence
(e.g. "--info=flist0 --progress").
While rsync is transferring a regular file, it updates a
progress line that looks like this:
782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04
In this example, the receiver has reconstructed 782448
bytes or 63% of the sender's file, which is being
reconstructed at a rate of 110.64 kilobytes per second,
and the transfer will finish in 4 seconds if the current
rate is maintained until the end.
These statistics can be misleading if rsync's delta-
transfer algorithm is in use. For example, if the
sender's file consists of the basis file followed by
additional data, the reported rate will probably drop
dramatically when the receiver gets to the literal data,
and the transfer will probably take much longer to finish
than the receiver estimated as it was finishing the
matched part of the file.
When the file transfer finishes, rsync replaces the
progress line with a summary line that looks like this:
1,238,099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (xfr#5, to-chk=169/396)
In this example, the file was 1,238,099 bytes long in
total, the average rate of transfer for the whole file was
146.38 kilobytes per second over the 8 seconds that it
took to complete, it was the 5th transfer of a regular
file during the current rsync session, and there are 169
more files for the receiver to check (to see if they are
up-to-date or not) remaining out of the 396 total files in
the file-list.
In an incremental recursion scan, rsync won't know the
total number of files in the file-list until it reaches
the ends of the scan, but since it starts to transfer
files during the scan, it will display a line with the
text "ir-chk" (for incremental recursion check) instead of
"to-chk" until the point that it knows the full size of
the list, at which point it will switch to using "to-chk".
Thus, seeing "ir-chk" lets you know that the total count
of files in the file list is still going to increase (and
each time it does, the count of files left to check will
increase by the number of the files added to the list).
-P The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. Its
purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two
options for a long transfer that may be interrupted.
There is also a --info=progress2 option that outputs
statistics based on the whole transfer, rather than
individual files. Use this flag without outputting a
filename (e.g. avoid -v or specify --info=name0) if you
want to see how the transfer is doing without scrolling
the screen with a lot of names. (You don't need to specify
the --progress option in order to use --info=progress2.)
Finally, you can get an instant progress report by sending
rsync a signal of either SIGINFO or SIGVTALRM. On BSD
systems, a SIGINFO is generated by typing a Ctrl+T (Linux
doesn't currently support a SIGINFO signal). When the
client-side process receives one of those signals, it sets
a flag to output a single progress report which is output
when the current file transfer finishes (so it may take a
little time if a big file is being handled when the signal
arrives). A filename is output (if needed) followed by
the --info=progress2 format of progress info. If you
don't know which of the 3 rsync processes is the client
process, it's OK to signal all of them (since the non-
client processes ignore the signal).
CAUTION: sending SIGVTALRM to an older rsync (pre-3.2.0)
will kill it.
--password-file=FILE
This option allows you to provide a password for accessing
an rsync daemon via a file or via standard input if FILE
is -. The file should contain just the password on the
first line (all other lines are ignored). Rsync will exit
with an error if FILE is world readable or if a root-run
rsync command finds a non-root-owned file.
This option does not supply a password to a remote shell
transport such as ssh; to learn how to do that, consult
the remote shell's documentation. When accessing an rsync
daemon using a remote shell as the transport, this option
only comes into effect after the remote shell finishes its
authentication (i.e. if you have also specified a password
in the daemon's config file).
--early-input=FILE
This option allows rsync to send up to 5K of data to the
"early exec" script on its stdin. One possible use of
this data is to give the script a secret that can be used
to mount an encrypted filesystem (which you should unmount
in the the "post-xfer exec" script).
The daemon must be at least version 3.2.1.
--list-only
This option will cause the source files to be listed
instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there
is a single source arg and no destination specified, so
its main uses are: (1) to turn a copy command that
includes a destination arg into a file-listing command, or
(2) to be able to specify more than one source arg (note:
be sure to include the destination). Caution: keep in
mind that a source arg with a wild-card is expanded by the
shell into multiple args, so it is never safe to try to
list such an arg without using this option. For example:
rsync -av --list-only foo* dest/
Starting with rsync 3.1.0, the sizes output by --list-only
are affected by the --human-readable option. By default
they will contain digit separators, but higher levels of
readability will output the sizes with unit suffixes.
Note also that the column width for the size output has
increased from 11 to 14 characters for all human-readable
levels. Use --no-h if you want just digits in the sizes,
and the old column width of 11 characters.
Compatibility note: when requesting a remote listing of
files from an rsync that is version 2.6.3 or older, you
may encounter an error if you ask for a non-recursive
listing. This is because a file listing implies the
--dirs option w/o --recursive, and older rsyncs don't have
that option. To avoid this problem, either specify the
--no-dirs option (if you don't need to expand a
directory's content), or turn on recursion and exclude the
content of subdirectories: -r --exclude='/*/*'.
--bwlimit=RATE
This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer
rate for the data sent over the socket, specified in units
per second. The RATE value can be suffixed with a string
to indicate a size multiplier, and may be a fractional
value (e.g. "--bwlimit=1.5m"). If no suffix is specified,
the value will be assumed to be in units of 1024 bytes (as
if "K" or "KiB" had been appended). See the --max-size
option for a description of all the available suffixes. A
value of 0 specifies no limit.
For backward-compatibility reasons, the rate limit will be
rounded to the nearest KiB unit, so no rate smaller than
1024 bytes per second is possible.
Rsync writes data over the socket in blocks, and this
option both limits the size of the blocks that rsync
writes, and tries to keep the average transfer rate at the
requested limit. Some burstiness may be seen where rsync
writes out a block of data and then sleeps to bring the
average rate into compliance.
Due to the internal buffering of data, the --progress
option may not be an accurate reflection on how fast the
data is being sent. This is because some files can show
up as being rapidly sent when the data is quickly
buffered, while other can show up as very slow when the
flushing of the output buffer occurs. This may be fixed
in a future version.
`--stop-after=MINS
This option tells rsync to stop copying when the specified
number of minutes has elapsed.
Rsync also accepts an earlier version of this option:
--time-limit=MINS.
For maximal flexibility, rsync does not communicate this
option to the remote rsync since it is usually enough that
one side of the connection quits as specified. This
allows the option's use even when only one side of the
connection supports it. You can tell the remote side
about the time limit using --remote-option (-M), should
the need arise.
`--stop-at=y-m-dTh:m
This option tells rsync to stop copying when the specified
point in time has been reached. The date & time can be
fully specified in a numeric format of year-month-
dayThour:minute (e.g. 2000-12-31T23:59) in the local
timezone. You may choose to separate the date numbers
using slashes instead of dashes.
The value can also be abbreviated in a variety of ways,
such as specifying a 2-digit year and/or leaving off
various values. In all cases, the value will be taken to
be the next possible point in time where the supplied
information matches. If the value specifies the current
time or a past time, rsync exits with an error.
For example, "1-30" specifies the next January 30th (at
midnight local time), "14:00" specifies the next 2 P.M.,
"1" specifies the next 1st of the month at midnight, "31"
specifies the next month where we can stop on its 31st
day, and ":59" specifies the next 59th minute after the
hour.
For maximal flexibility, rsync does not communicate this
option to the remote rsync since it is usually enough that
one side of the connection quits as specified. This
allows the option's use even when only one side of the
connection supports it. You can tell the remote side
about the time limit using --remote-option (-M), should
the need arise. Do keep in mind that the remote host may
have a different default timezone than your local host.
--write-batch=FILE
Record a file that can later be applied to another
identical destination with --read-batch. See the "BATCH
MODE" section for details, and also the --only-write-batch
option.
This option overrides the negotiated checksum & compress
lists and always negotiates a choice based on old-school
md5/md4/zlib choices. If you want a more modern choice,
use the --checksum-choice (--cc) and/or --compress-choice
(--zc) options.
--only-write-batch=FILE
Works like --write-batch, except that no updates are made
on the destination system when creating the batch. This
lets you transport the changes to the destination system
via some other means and then apply the changes via
--read-batch.
Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to
some portable media: if this media fills to capacity
before the end of the transfer, you can just apply that
partial transfer to the destination and repeat the whole
process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you
don't mind a partially updated destination system while
the multi-update cycle is happening).
Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing
changes to a remote system because this allows the batched
data to be diverted from the sender into the batch file
without having to flow over the wire to the receiver (when
pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the
batch).
--read-batch=FILE
Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a file previously
generated by --write-batch. If FILE is -, the batch data
will be read from standard input. See the "BATCH MODE"
section for details.
--protocol=NUM
Force an older protocol version to be used. This is
useful for creating a batch file that is compatible with
an older version of rsync. For instance, if rsync 2.6.4
is being used with the --write-batch option, but rsync
2.6.3 is what will be used to run the --read-batch option,
you should use "--protocol=28" when creating the batch
file to force the older protocol version to be used in the
batch file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the
reading system).
--iconv=CONVERT_SPEC
Rsync can convert filenames between character sets using
this option. Using a CONVERT_SPEC of "." tells rsync to
look up the default character-set via the locale setting.
Alternately, you can fully specify what conversion to do
by giving a local and a remote charset separated by a
comma in the order --iconv=LOCAL,REMOTE, e.g.
--iconv=utf8,iso88591. This order ensures that the option
will stay the same whether you're pushing or pulling
files. Finally, you can specify either --no-iconv or a
CONVERT_SPEC of "-" to turn off any conversion. The
default setting of this option is site-specific, and can
also be affected via the RSYNC_ICONV environment variable.
For a list of what charset names your local iconv library
supports, you can run "iconv --list".
If you specify the --protect-args option (-s), rsync will
translate the filenames you specify on the command-line
that are being sent to the remote host. See also the
--files-from option.
Note that rsync does not do any conversion of names in
filter files (including include/exclude files). It is up
to you to ensure that you're specifying matching rules
that can match on both sides of the transfer. For
instance, you can specify extra include/exclude rules if
there are filename differences on the two sides that need
to be accounted for.
When you pass an --iconv option to an rsync daemon that
allows it, the daemon uses the charset specified in its
"charset" configuration parameter regardless of the remote
charset you actually pass. Thus, you may feel free to
specify just the local charset for a daemon transfer (e.g.
--iconv=utf8).
--ipv4, -4 or --ipv6, -6
Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating sockets or
running ssh. This affects sockets that rsync has direct
control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly
contacting an rsync daemon, as well as the forwarding of
the -4 or -6 option to ssh when rsync can deduce that ssh
is being used as the remote shell. For other remote
shells you'll need to specify the "--rsh SHELL -4" option
directly (or whatever ipv4/ipv6 hint options it uses).
These options also exist in the --daemon mode 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.
--checksum-seed=NUM
Set the checksum seed to the integer NUM. This 4 byte
checksum seed is included in each block and MD4 file
checksum calculation (the more modern MD5 file checksums
don't use a seed). By default the checksum seed is
generated by the server and defaults to the current
time(). This option is used to set a specific checksum
seed, which is useful for applications that want
repeatable block checksums, or in the case where the user
wants a more random checksum seed. Setting NUM to 0
causes rsync to use the default of time() for checksum
seed.
