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NAME
    rsync - faster, flexible replacement for rcp

SYNOPSIS
    rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST

    rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST

    rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST

    rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]

    rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST

    rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]

DESCRIPTION
    rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does, but
    has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
    greatly speed up file  transfers when the destination file already
    exists.

    The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the dif-
    ferences  between two sets of files across the network link, using an
    efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical report
    that accompanies this package.

    Some of the additional features of rsync are:

    o   support for copying links, devices, owners, groups and permis-
    sions

    o   exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar

    o   a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS  would
    ignore

    o   can use any transparent remote shell, including rsh or ssh

    o   does not require root privileges

    o   pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs

    o   support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
    mirroring)

GENERAL
    There are six different ways of using rsync. They are:

    o   for copying local files. This is invoked when neither source nor
    destination path contains a : separator

    o   for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using a
    remote shell program as the transport (such as rsh or ssh). This
    is invoked when the destination path contains a single : separa-
    tor.

    o   for copying from a remote machine to the local machine using a
    remote shell program. This is invoked when the source contains a
    : separator.

    o   for copying from a remote rsync server to the local machine.
    This is invoked when the source path contains a :: separator or
    a rsync:// URL.

    o   for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync server.
    This is invoked when the destination path contains a :: separa-
    tor.

    o   for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the same way
    as rsync transfers except that you leave off the local destina-
    tion.

    Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
    and destination paths must be local.

SETUP
    See the file README for installation instructions.

    Once installed you can use rsync to any machine that you can use rsh
    to. rsync uses rsh for its communications, unless both the source and
    destination are local.

    You can also specify an alternative to rsh, either by using the -e com-
    mand line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.

    One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
    security.

    Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
    machines.

USAGE
    You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
    and a destination, one of which may be remote.

    Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is some examples:

    rsync *.c foo:src/

    this would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the current
    directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of the  files
    already exist on the remote system then the rsync remote-update proto-
    col is used to update the file by sending only the differences. See the
    tech report for details.

    rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp

    this would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on
    the machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine.
    The files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that sym-
    bolic links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships etc are pre-
    served in the transfer.  Additionally, compression will be used to
    reduce the size of data portions of the transfer.

    rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp

    a trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to  transfer all
    files  from the directory src/bar on the machine foo into the
    /data/tmp/. A trailing / on a source name means "copy the contents of
    this directory".  Without a trailing slash it means "copy the direc-
    tory". This difference becomes particularly important when using the
    --delete option.

    You can  also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
    destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
    an improved copy command.

    rsync somehost.mydomain.com::

    this would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
    somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)

CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER
    It is also possible to use rsync without using rsh or ssh as the trans-
    port. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server running on
    TCP port 873.

    You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the  envi-
    ronment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to your
    web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must allow proxy-
    ing to port 873.

    Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with rsh or ssh except
    that:

    o   you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to separate
    the hostname from the path.

    o   the remote server may print a message of the day when you con-
    nect.

    o   if you specify no path name on the remote server then the list
    of accessible paths on the server will be shown.

    o   if you specify no local destination then a listing of the speci-
    fied files on the remote server is provided.

    Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
    you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
    password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
    the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
    may be useful when scripting rsync.

    WARNING: On some systems  environment variables  are visible to all
    users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.

RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER
    An rsync server is configured using a config file which by default is
    called /etc/rsyncd.conf. Please see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for
    more information.

EXAMPLES
    Here are some examples of how I use rsync.

    To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
    files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs

    rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup

    each night over a PPP link to a  duplicate directory on my machine
    "arvidsjaur".

    To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile tar-
    gets:

    get:
    rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .

    put:
    rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/

    sync: get put

    this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
    link. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a lot
    of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.

    I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the com-
    mand

    rsync  -az  -e  ssh   --delete  ~ftp/pub/samba/  nim-
    bus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba"

    this is launched from cron every few hours.

OPTIONS SUMMARY
    Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
    to the detailed description below for a complete description.

 -v, --verbose    increase verbosity
 -q, --quiet    decrease verbosity
 -c, --checksum    always checksum
 -a, --archive    archive mode
 -r, --recursive    recurse into directories
 -R, --relative    use relative path names
 -b, --backup    make backups (default ~ suffix)
   --backup-dir   make backups into this directory
   --suffix=SUFFIX   override backup suffix
 -u, --update    update only (don't overwrite newer files)
 -l, --links    copy symlinks as symlinks
 -L, --copy-links   copy the referent of symlinks
   --copy-unsafe-links   copy links outside the source tree
   --safe-links   ignore links outside the destination tree
 -H, --hard-links   preserve hard links
 -p, --perms    preserve permissions
 -o, --owner    preserve owner (root only)
 -g, --group    preserve group
 -D, --devices    preserve devices (root only)
 -t, --times    preserve times
 -S, --sparse    handle sparse files efficiently
 -n, --dry-run    show what would have been transferred
 -W, --whole-file   copy whole files, no incremental checks
   --no-whole-file   turn off --whole-file
 -x, --one-file-system   don't cross filesystem boundaries
 -B, --block-size=SIZE   checksum blocking size (default 700)
 -e, --rsh=COMMAND   specify rsh replacement
   --rsync-path=PATH   specify path to rsync on the remote machine
 -C, --cvs-exclude   auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
   --existing    only update files that already exist
   --ignore-existing   ignore files that already exist on the receiving side
   --delete    delete files that don't exist on the sending side
   --delete-excluded   also delete excluded files on the receiving side
   --delete-after   delete after transferring, not before
   --ignore-errors   delete even if there are IO errors
   --max-delete=NUM   don't delete more than NUM files
   --partial    keep partially transferred files
   --force    force deletion of directories even if not empty
   --numeric-ids   don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
   --timeout=TIME   set IO timeout in seconds
 -I, --ignore-times   don't exclude files that match length and time
   --size-only    only use file size when determining if a file should be transferred
   --modify-window=NUM   Timestamp window (seconds) for file match (default=0)
 -T --temp-dir=DIR   create temporary files in directory DIR
   --compare-dest=DIR   also compare destination files relative to DIR
 -P     equivalent to --partial --progress
 -z, --compress    compress file data
   --exclude=PATTERN   exclude files matching PATTERN
   --exclude-from=FILE   exclude patterns listed in FILE
   --include=PATTERN   don't exclude files matching PATTERN
   --include-from=FILE   don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
   --version    print version number
   --daemon    run as a rsync daemon
   --no-detach    do not detach from the parent
   --address=ADDRESS   bind to the specified address
   --config=FILE   specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
   --port=PORT    specify alternate rsyncd port number
   --blocking-io   use blocking IO for the remote shell
   --no-blocking-io   turn off --blocking-io
   --stats    give some file transfer stats
   --progress    show progress during transfer
   --log-format=FORMAT   log file transfers using specified format
   --password-file=FILE  get password from FILE
   --bwlimit=KBPS   limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
   --read-batch=PREFIX   read batch fileset starting with PREFIX
   --write-batch=PREFIX  write batch fileset starting with PREFIX
 -h, --help    show this help screen

OPTIONS
    rsync uses the  GNU long options package. Many of the command line
    options have two variants, one short and one long.  These are  shown
    below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant. The
    '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace can be
    used instead.

    -h, --help
    Print a short help page describing the options available in
    rsync

    --version
    print the rsync version number and exit

    -v, --verbose
    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 trans-
    ferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give
    you information on what files are  being skipped  and slightly
    more information at the end. More than two -v flags should only
    be used if you are debugging rsync.

    -q, --quiet
    This option decreases the amount of information you are  given
    during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
    from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking  rsync
    from cron.

    -I, --ignore-times
    Normally rsync will skip any files that are already the same
    length and have the same time-stamp. This option turns off this
    behavior.

    --size-only
    Normally rsync will skip any files that are already the same
    length and have the same time-stamp. With the --size-only option
    files will be skipped if they have the same size, regardless of
    timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync after using
    another mirroring system which  may not preserve timestamps
    exactly.

    --modify-window
    When comparing two timestamps rsync treats the timestamps as
    being equal if they are within the value of modify_window. This
    is normally zero, but you may find it useful to set this  to a
    larger value in some situations. In particular, when transfer-
    ring to/from FAT filesystems which cannot represent times with a
    1 second resolution this option is useful.

    -c, --checksum
    This forces the sender to checksum all files using a 128-bit MD4
    checksum before transfer. The checksum is then explicitly
    checked on the receiver and any files of the same name which
    already exist and  have the same checksum and  size on the
    receiver are skipped. This option can be quite slow.

    -a, --archive
    This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick way of saying you
    want recursion and want to preserve almost everything.

    Note however that -a does not preserve hardlinks, because  find-
    ing multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
    specify -H.

    -r, --recursive
    This tells rsync to copy directories recursively. If you  don't
    specify this then rsync won't copy directories at all.

    -R, --relative
    Use relative paths. This means that the full path names speci-
    fied 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 the command

    rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/

    then this would  create  a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the
    remote machine. If instead you used

    rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/

    then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the
    remote machine. The full path name is preserved.

    -b, --backup
    With this option preexisting destination files are renamed with
    a ~ extension as each file is transferred. You can control the
    backup suffix using the --suffix option.

    --backup-dir=DIR
    In combination with the --backup option, this tells rsync to
    store all backups in the specified directory. This is very use-
    ful for incremental backups.

    --suffix=SUFFIX
    This option allows you  to override the default backup suffix
    used with the -b option. The default is a ~.

    -u, --update
    This forces rsync to skip any files for which the destination
    file already exists and has a date later than the source file.

    -l, --links
    When symlinks are encountered, recreate the symlink on the des-
    tination.

    -L, --copy-links
    When symlinks are encountered, the file that they  point to is
    copied, rather than the symlink.

    --copy-unsafe-links
    This tells rsync to copy the referent of symbolic links that
    point outside the  source  tree.  Absolute symlinks are also
    treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
    source path itself when --relative is used.

    --safe-links
    This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links which point out-
    side the  destination tree. All absolute symlinks are also
    ignored. Using this option in conjunction  with --relative may
    give unexpected results.

    -H, --hard-links
    This tells rsync to recreate hard links  on the  remote system
    to be the same as the local system. Without this option hard
    links are treated like regular files.

    Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the
    link are in the list of files being sent.

    This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.

    -W, --whole-file
    With this option the incremental rsync algorithm is not used and
    the whole file is sent as-is  instead. The transfer may be
    faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the
    source and target machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk
    (especially when the "disk" is actually a  networked file sys-
    tem).  This is the default when both the source and target are
    on the local machine.

    --no-whole-file
    Turn off --whole-file, for use when it is the default.

    -p, --perms
    This option causes rsync to update the remote permissions to be
    the same as the local permissions.

    -o, --owner
    This option causes rsync to set the owner of the destination
    file to be the same as the source file. On most systems, only
    the super-user can set file ownership.

    -g, --group
    This option causes rsync to set the group of the destination
    file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving pro-
    gram is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
    receiver is a member of will be preserved (by group name, not
    group id number).

    -D, --devices
    This option causes rsync to transfer character and block device
    information to the remote system to recreate these devices. This
    option is only available to the super-user.

    -t, --times
    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, and all files will have their checksums  compared and
    show up in log messages even if they haven't changed.

    -n, --dry-run
    This tells rsync to not do any file transfers, instead it will
    just report the actions it would have taken.

    -S, --sparse
    Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take up less
    space on the destination.

    NOTE: Don't use  this option when the destination is a Solaris
    "tmpfs" filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null
    regions correctly and ends up corrupting the files.

    -x, --one-file-system
    This tells rsync not to cross filesystem boundaries when
    recursing. This is useful for transferring the contents of
    only one filesystem.

    --existing
    This tells rsync not to create any new files - only update files
    that already exist on the destination.

    --ignore-existing
    This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on the
    destination.

    --max-delete=NUM
    This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM files or directo-
    ries. This is useful when mirroring very large trees to prevent
    disasters.

    --delete
    This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving side that
    aren't on the sending side.  Files that are excluded from
    transfer  are excluded from being deleted unless you use
    --delete-excluded.

    This option has  no effect if  directory recursion is not
    selected.

    This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very
    good idea to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what
    files would be deleted  to make sure important files aren't
    listed.

    If the sending side detects any IO 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 causing a massive deletion of files
    on the destination. You can override this with the --ignore-
    errors option.

    --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).

    --delete-after
    By default rsync does file deletions before transferring files
    to try to ensure that there is sufficient space on the receiving
    filesystem. If you want to delete after transferring then use
    the --delete-after switch.

    --ignore-errors
    Tells --delete to go ahead and delete files even when there are
    IO errors.

    --force
    This options tells rsync to delete directories even if they are
    not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
    is only relevant without --delete because deletions are now done
    depth-first. Requires the --recursive option (which is implied
    by -a) to have any effect.

    -B , --block-size=BLOCKSIZE
    This controls the block size used in the rsync algorithm. See
    the technical report for details.

    -e, --rsh=COMMAND
    This option allows you to choose an alternative  remote  shell
    program to use for communication between the local and remote
    copies of rsync. By default, rsync will use rsh,  but you may
    like to instead use ssh because of its high security.

    You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
    environment variable.

    See also the --blocking-io option  which is affected by this
    option.

    --rsync-path=PATH
    Use this to specify the path to the copy of rsync on the remote
    machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note that this is
    the full  path to the binary, not just the directory that the
    binary is in.

    --exclude=PATTERN
    This option allows you to selectively exclude certain files from
    the list of files to be transferred. This is most useful in com-
    bination with a recursive transfer.

    You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you
    like to build up the list of files to exclude.

    See the section on exclude patterns for information on the syn-
    tax of this option.

    --exclude-from=FILE
    This option is similar to the --exclude option, but instead it
    adds all exclude patterns listed in the file FILE to the exclude
    list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with ';' or '#'
    are ignored.

    --include=PATTERN
    This option tells rsync to not exclude the specified pattern of
    filenames. This is useful as it allows you to build up  quite
    complex exclude/include rules.

    See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syn-
    tax of this option.

    --include-from=FILE
    This specifies a list of include patterns from a file.

    -C, --cvs-exclude
    This is a useful shorthand for excluding a broad range of  files
    that you  often don't want to transfer between systems. It uses
    the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if a file should
    be ignored.

    The exclude list is initialized to:

    RCS SCCS  CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.*  tags TAGS .make.state
    .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
    *.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core

    then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list
    and any files listed in  the CVSIGNORE  environment variable
    (space delimited).

    Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
    .cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein.
    See the cvs(1) manual for more information.

    --csum-length=LENGTH
    By default the primary checksum used in rsync is a very strong
    16 byte MD4 checksum. In most cases you will find that a  trun-
    cated version of this checksum is quite efficient, and this will
    decrease the size of the checksum data sent over the link, mak-
    ing things faster.

    You can choose the number of bytes in the truncated checksum
    using the --csum-length option. Any value less than or equal to
    16 is valid.

    Note that if you use this option then you run the risk of ending
    up with an incorrect target file. The risk with a value of 16 is
    microscopic and can be safely ignored (the universe will proba-
    bly end before it fails) but with smaller  values  the risk is
    higher.

    Current versions of rsync actually use an adaptive algorithm for
    the checksum length by default, using a 16 byte file checksum to
    determine  if a 2nd pass is required with a longer block check-
    sum. Only use this option if you have read the source code and
    know what you are doing.

    -T, --temp-dir=DIR
    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 the temporary
    files in the receiving directory.

    --compare-dest=DIR
    This option instructs rsync to use DIR on the destination
    machine as an additional directory to compare destination files
    against when doing transfers. This is useful for  doing trans-
    fers to a new destination while leaving existing files intact,
    and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have been success-
    fully transferred (for example by moving directories around and
    removing the old directory, although this  requires also  doing
    the transfer with -I to avoid skipping files that haven't
    changed).  This option increases the usefulness  of --partial
    because partially transferred files will remain in the new tem-
    porary destination until they have a chance to be completed. If
    DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination direc-
    tory.

    -z, --compress
    With this option, rsync compresses any data from the files that
    it sends  to the destination machine. This option is useful on
    slow links. The compression method used is the same method that
    gzip uses.

    Note this this option typically achieves better compression
    ratios that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell,
    or a compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the
    implicit information sent for matching data blocks.

    --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 user name and group name to deter-
    mine 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 the source system is a daemon using chroot, or if a user or
    group name does not exist on the destination system, then the
    numeric id from the source system is used instead.

    --timeout=TIMEOUT
    This option allows you to set a maximum IO timeout in seconds.
    If no data is transferred for the specified time then rsync will
    exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.

    --daemon
    This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The daemon may
    be accessed using the host::module or rsync://host/module/ syn-
    tax.

    If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is
    being run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current
    terminal and become a background daemon. The daemon will read
    the config file (/etc/rsyncd.conf) on each connect made  by a
    client  and  respond  to  requests  accordingly.  See the
    rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more details.

    --no-detach
    When running as a daemon, this option instructs rsync to not
    detach itself and become a background process. This option is
    required when running as a service on Cygwin, and  may also be
    useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as daemontools
    or AIX's System Resource Controller. --no-detach is also recom-
    mended when rsync is run under a debugger. This option has no
    effect if rsync is run from inetd or sshd.

    --address
    By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when run as a
    daemon with the  --daemon option or when connecting to a rsync
    server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
    address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting
    possible in conjunction with the --config option.

    --config=FILE
    This specifies an alternate config file than the default
    /etc/rsyncd.conf.  This is only relevant when --daemon is speci-
    fied.

    --port=PORT
    This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use rather than
    the default port 873.

    --blocking-io
    This tells rsync to use blocking IO when launching a remote
    shell transport. If -e or --rsh are not specified or are set to
    the default "rsh", this defaults to blocking IO, otherwise it
    defaults to non-blocking IO. You  may find the  --blocking-io
    option is needed for some remote shells that can't handle non-
    blocking IO. Ssh prefers blocking IO.

    --no-blocking-io
    Turn off --blocking-io, for use when it is the default.

    --log-format=FORMAT
    This allows you to specify exactly what the rsync client logs to
    stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is specified using
    the same  format  conventions as the log format option in
    rsyncd.conf.

    --stats
    This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics on the
    file transfer, allowing you to tell how  effective the  rsync
    algorithm is for your data.

    --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 --par-
    tial option tells rsync to keep the partial file  which should
    make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.

    --progress
    This option tells rsync to print information showing the
    progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user something to
    watch.

    This option is normally combined with -v. Using this option
    without the -v option will produce weird results on your dis-
    play.

    -P   The -P option is equivalent to --partial  --progress. I  found
    myself typing that combination  quite often so I created an
    option to make it easier.

    --password-file
    This option allows you to provide  a password in a file for
    accessing  a remote rsync server. Note that this option is only
    useful when accessing a rsync server using the built in trans-
    port, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
    must not be world readable. It should contain just the password
    as a single line.

    --bwlimit=KBPS
    This option allows you  to specify a maximum transfer rate in
    kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when  using
    rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the
    nature of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if
    rsync determines the transfer was too fast, it will wait before
    sending the next data block. The result is an average transfer
    rate equalling the specified limit. A value of zero specifies no
    limit.

    --write-batch=PREFIX
    Generate a set of files that can  be transferred as a  batch
    update. Each filename in the set starts with PREFIX. See the
    "BATCH MODE" section for details.

    --read-batch=PREFIX
    Apply a previously generated change batch, using the fileset
    whose filenames start with PREFIX. See the "BATCH MODE" section
    for details.

EXCLUDE PATTERNS
    The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
    selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.

    rsync builds an ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
    the command line. When a filename is encountered, rsync checks the name
    against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching pat-
    tern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern, then that file is
    skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not skipped.
    If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the filename is
    not skipped.

    Note that when used with -r (which is implied by -a), every subcompo-
    nent of every path is visited from top down, so  include/exclude pat-
    terns get applied recursively to each subcomponent.

    Note also that  the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
    each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and --exclude-
    from options or multiple --include and --exclude options.

    The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:

    o   if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
    start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end
    of the filename. Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at
    the base of the tree. On the other hand, "foo" would match any
    file called "foo" anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is
    applied recursively from top down; it behaves as if each path
    component gets a turn at being the end of the file name.

    o   if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a direc-
    tory, not a file, link or device.

    o   if the pattern contains a wildcard character from  the set *?[
    then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
    matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.

    o   if the pattern includes a double asterisk "**" then all  wild-
    cards in  the pattern will match slashes, otherwise they will
    stop at slashes.

    o   if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) then it
    is matched against the  full filename, including any leading
    directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / then it is matched
    only against the final component of the filename.  Again, remem-
    ber that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
    can actually be any portion of a path.

    o   if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
    then it is always considered an include pattern, even if speci-
    fied as part of an exclude option. The "+ " part is discarded
    before matching.

    o   if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed  by a space)
    then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if speci-
    fied as part of an include option. The "- " part  is discarded
    before matching.

    o   if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
    include/exclude list is reset, removing all previously defined
    patterns.

    The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing you to have a
    single exclude list that contains both include and exclude options.

    If you end an exclude list with --exclude '*', note that since the
    algorithm is applied recursively that unless you explicitly include
    parent directories of files you want to include then the algorithm will
    stop at the parent directories and never see the files below them. To
    include all directories, use --include '*/' before the --exclude '*'.

    Here are some exclude/include examples:

    o   --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o

    o   --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file in the base directory
    called foo

    o   --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo

    o   --exclude  "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
    levels below a base directory called foo

    o   --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two or
    more levels below a base directory called foo

    o   --include  "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
    directories and C source files

    o   --include  "foo/"  --include "foo/bar.c"  --exclude "*"  would
    include only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly
    included or it would be excluded by the "*")

BATCH MODE
    Note: Batch mode should be considered experimental in this version of
    rsync. The interface or behaviour may change before it stabilizes.

    Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many identi-
    cal systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a number of
    hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this source tree and
    those changes need to be propagated to the other hosts. In order to do
    this using batch mode, rsync  is run with the write-batch option to
    apply the changes made to the source tree to one of the destination
    trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync client to store the
    information needed to repeat this operation against other destination
    trees in a batch update fileset (see below). The filename of each file
    in the fileset starts with a prefix specified by the user as an  argu-
    ment to  the write-batch option. This fileset is then copied to each
    remote host, where rsync is run with the read-batch option, again spec-
    ifying the same prefix, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the
    destination tree using the information stored in the batch update file-
    set.

    The fileset consists of 4 files:

    o   <prefix>.rsync_argvs command-line arguments

    o   <prefix>.rsync_flist rsync internal file metadata

    o   <prefix>.rsync_csums rsync checksums

    o   <prefix>.rsync_delta data blocks for file update & change

    The .rsync_argvs file contains a command-line suitable for updating a
    destination tree using that batch update fileset. It can be executed
    using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally passing in an alternate desti-
    nation tree pathname which is then used instead of the original  path.
    This is useful when the destination tree path differs from the original
    destination tree path.

    Generating the batch update fileset once saves having to perform the
    file status, checksum and data block generation more than once when
    updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
    be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts at
    once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.

    Example:

    $ rsync --write_batch=pfx -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
    $ rcp pfx.rsync_* remote:
    $ rsh remote rsync --read_batch=pfx -a /bdest/dir/
    # or alternatively
    $ rsh remote ./pfx.rsync_argvs /bdest/dir/

    In this example, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ with /source/dir/
    and the  information to repeat this operation is stored in the files
    pfx.rsync_*. These files are then copied to the machine named "remote".
    Rsync is then invoked on "remote" to update /bdest/dir/ the same way as
    /adest/dir/. The last line shows the rsync_argvs  file being used to
    invoke rsync.

    Caveats:

    The read-batch option expects  the destination tree it is meant to
    update to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create
    the batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination
    trees is encountered the update will fail at that point, leaving the
    destination tree in a partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
    be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the des-
    tination tree.

    The rsync version used on all destinations should be identical to the
    one used on the original destination.

    The -z/--compress option does not work in batch mode and yields a usage
    error. A separate compression tool can be used instead to reduce the
    size of the batch update files for transport to the destination.

    The -n/--dryrun option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
    error.

    See http://www.ils.unc.edu/i2dsi/unc_rsync+.html for papers and techni-
    cal reports.

SYMBOLIC LINKS
    Three basic behaviours are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
    link in the source directory.

    By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
    "skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.

    If --links is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same tar-
    get on the destination. Note that --archive implies --links.

    If --copy-links is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by copying
    their referent, rather than the symlink.

    rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An  exam-
    ple where this  might be used is a web site mirror that wishes ensure
    the rsync module they  copy does not include symbolic links to
    /etc/passwd in the public section of the site. Using --copy-unsafe-
    links will cause any links to be copied as the file they  point to on
    the destination.  Using --safe-links will cause unsafe links to be
    ommitted altogether.

DIAGNOSTICS
    rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little cryp-
    tic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol ver-
    sion mismatch - is your shell clean?".

    This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote  shell
    facility  producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
    for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is  to run your
    remote shell like this:

  rsh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat

    then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
    should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
    rsync then you  will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
    data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing it.
    The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup scripts
    (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output  statements for non-
    interactive logins.

    If you are having trouble debugging include and exclude patterns, then
    try specifying the -vv option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
    show why each individual file is included or excluded.

EXIT VALUES
    RERR_SYNTAX 1
    Syntax or usage error

    RERR_PROTOCOL 2
    Protocol incompatibility

    RERR_FILESELECT 3
    Errors selecting input/output files, dirs

    RERR_UNSUPPORTED 4
    Requested  action  not supported: an attempt was made to manipu-
    late 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support them; or an
    option was speciifed that is supported by the client and not by
    the server.

    RERR_SOCKETIO 10
    Error in socket IO

    RERR_FILEIO 11
    Error in file IO

    RERR_STREAMIO 12
    Error in rsync protocol data stream

    RERR_MESSAGEIO 13
    Errors with program diagnostics

    RERR_IPC 14
    Error in IPC code

    RERR_SIGNAL 20
    Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT

    RERR_WAITCHILD 21
    Some error returned by waitpid()

    RERR_MALLOC 22
    Error allocating core memory buffers

    RERR_TIMEOUT 30
    Timeout in data send/receive

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
    CVSIGNORE
    The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any ignore pat-
    terns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for more
    details.

    RSYNC_RSH
    The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to  override the
    default shell used as the transport for rsync. This can be used
    instead of the -e option.

    RSYNC_PROXY
    The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to redirect your
    rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a rsync dae-
    mon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.

    RSYNC_PASSWORD
    Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required password allows you to
    run authenticated rsync  connections to a rsync daemon without
    user intervention. Note that this does not supply a password to
    a shell transport such as ssh.

    USER or LOGNAME
    The USER or LOGNAME environment variables are used to determine
    the default username sent to a rsync server.

    HOME  The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's default
    .cvsignore file.

FILES
    /etc/rsyncd.conf

SEE ALSO
    rsyncd.conf(5)

DIAGNOSTICS
BUGS
    times are transferred as unix time_t values

    file permissions, devices etc are transferred as native numerical val-
    ues

    see also the comments on the --delete option

    Please report bugs! The rsync  bug tracking system is online at
    http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/

VERSION
    This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync

CREDITS
    rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file COPY-
    ING for details.

    A WEB site is available at http://rsync.samba.org/. The site includes
    an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this manual
    page.

    The primary ftp site for rsync is ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync.

    We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.

    This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
    Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.

THANKS
    Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
    and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
    I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.

    Especial  thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer.

AUTHOR
    rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell <tridge@samba.org> and Paul  Mack-
    erras.

    rsync is now maintained by Martin Pool <mbp@samba.org>.

    Mailing  lists  for  support  and  development are  available at
    http://lists.samba.org

    If you suspect you have found a security vulnerability in rsync, please
    send it  directly to Martin Pool and Andrew Tridgell. For other
    enquiries, please use the mailing list.