rsync is a file transfer program capable of efficient remote update via a fast differencing algorithm.Usage: rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC [DEST]
or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
or rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
The ':' usages connect via remote shell, while '::' & 'rsync://' usages connect
to an rsync daemon, and require SRC or DEST to start with a module name.
| Options |
| -v, --verbose |
increase verbosity |
| -q, --quiet |
suppress non-error
messages |
| --no-motd |
suppress daemon-mode
MOTD (see manpage caveat) |
| -c, --checksum |
skip based on
checksum, not mod-time & size |
| -a, --archive |
archive mode; equals
-rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-X) |
| --no-OPTION |
turn off an implied
OPTION (e.g. --no-D) |
| -r, --recursive |
recurse into
directories |
| -R, --relative |
use relative path
names |
| --no-implied-dirs |
don't send implied
dirs with --relative |
| -b, --backup |
make backups (see
--suffix & --backup-dir) |
| --backup-dir=DIR |
make backups into
hierarchy based in DIR |
| --suffix=SUFFIX |
set backup suffix
(default ~ w/o --backup-dir) |
| -u, --update |
skip files that are
newer on the receiver |
| --inplace |
update destination
files in-place (SEE MAN PAGE) |
| --append |
append data onto
shorter files |
| --append-verify |
like --append, but
with old data in file checksum |
| -d, --dirs |
transfer directories
without recursing |
| -l, --links |
copy symlinks as
symlinks |
| -L, --copy-links |
transform symlink
into referent file/dir |
| --copy-unsafe-links |
only
"unsafe" symlinks are transformed |
| --safe-links |
ignore symlinks that
point outside the source tree |
| -k, --copy-dirlinks |
transform symlink to
a dir into referent dir |
| -K, --keep-dirlinks |
treat symlinked dir
on receiver as dir |
| -H, --hard-links |
preserve hard links |
| -p, --perms |
preserve permissions |
| -E, --executability |
preserve the file's
executability |
| --chmod=CHMOD |
affect file and/or
directory permissions |
| -A, --acls |
preserve ACLs
(implies --perms) |
| -X, --xattrs |
preserve extended
attributes |
| -o, --owner |
preserve owner
(super-user only) |
| -g, --group |
preserve group |
| --devices |
preserve device files
(super-user only) |
| --copy-devices |
copy device contents
as regular file |
| --specials |
preserve special
files |
| -D |
same as --devices
--specials |
| -t, --times |
preserve modification
times |
| -O, --omit-dir-times |
omit directories from
--times |
| --super |
receiver attempts
super-user activities |
| --fake-super |
store/recover
privileged attrs using xattrs |
| -S, --sparse |
handle sparse files
efficiently |
| -n, --dry-run |
perform a trial run
with no changes made |
| -W, --whole-file |
copy files whole
(without delta-xfer algorithm) |
| -x, --one-file-system |
don't cross
filesystem boundaries |
| -B, --block-size=SIZE |
force a fixed
checksum block-size |
| -e, --rsh=COMMAND |
specify the remote
shell to use |
| --rsync-path=PROGRAM |
specify the rsync to
run on the remote machine |
| --existing |
skip creating new
files on receiver |
| --ignore-existing |
skip updating files
that already exist on receiver |
| --remove-source-files |
sender removes
synchronized files (non-dirs) |
| --del |
an alias for
--delete-during |
| --delete |
delete extraneous
files from destination dirs |
| --delete-before |
receiver deletes
before transfer, not during |
| --delete-during |
receiver deletes
during the transfer |
| --delete-delay |
find deletions
during, delete after |
| --delete-after |
receiver deletes
after transfer, not during |
| --delete-excluded |
also delete excluded
files from destination dirs |
| --ignore-errors |
delete even if there
are I/O errors |
| --force |
force deletion of
directories even if not empty |
| --max-delete=NUM |
don't delete more
than NUM files |
| --max-size=SIZE |
don't transfer any
file larger than SIZE |
| --min-size=SIZE |
don't transfer any
file smaller than SIZE |
| --partial |
keep partially
transferred files |
| --partial-dir=DIR |
put a partially
transferred file into DIR |
| --delay-updates |
put all updated files
into place at transfer's end |
| -m, --prune-empty-dirs |
prune empty directory
chains from the file-list |
| --numeric-ids |
don't map uid/gid
values by user/group name |
| --timeout=SECONDS |
set I/O timeout in
seconds |
| --contimeout=SECONDS |
set daemon connection
timeout in seconds |
| -I, --ignore-times |
don't skip files that
match in size and mod-time |
| --size-only |
skip files that match
in size |
| --modify-window=NUM |
compare mod-times
with reduced accuracy |
| -T, --temp-dir=DIR |
create temporary
files in directory DIR |
| -y, --fuzzy |
find similar file for
basis if no dest file |
| --compare-dest=DIR |
also compare
destination files relative to DIR |
| --copy-dest=DIR |
... and include
copies of unchanged files |
| --link-dest=DIR |
hardlink to files in
DIR when unchanged |
| -z, --compress |
compress file data
during the transfer |
| --compress-level=NUM |
explicitly set
compression level |
| --skip-compress=LIST |
skip compressing
files with a suffix in LIST |
| -C, --cvs-exclude |
auto-ignore files the
same way CVS does |
| -f, --filter=RULE |
add a file-filtering
RULE |
| -F |
same as
--filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter' |
| |
repeated: --filter='-
.rsync-filter' |
| --exclude=PATTERN |
exclude files
matching PATTERN |
| --exclude-from=FILE |
read exclude patterns
from FILE |
| --include=PATTERN |
don't exclude files
matching PATTERN |
| --include-from=FILE |
read include patterns
from FILE |
| --files-from=FILE |
read list of
source-file names from FILE |
| -0, --from0 |
all *-from/filter
files are delimited by 0s |
| -s, --protect-args |
no space-splitting;
only wildcard special-chars |
| --address=ADDRESS |
bind address for
outgoing socket to daemon |
| --port=PORT |
specify double-colon
alternate port number |
| --sockopts=OPTIONS |
specify custom TCP
options |
| --blocking-io |
use blocking I/O for
the remote shell |
| --stats |
give some
file-transfer stats |
| -8, --8-bit-output |
leave high-bit chars
unescaped in output |
| -h, --human-readable |
output numbers in a
human-readable format |
| --progress |
show progress during
transfer |
| -P |
same as --partial
--progress |
| -i, --itemize-changes |
output a
change-summary for all updates |
| --out-format=FORMAT |
output updates using
the specified FORMAT |
| --log-file=FILE |
log what we're doing
to the specified FILE |
| --log-file-format=FMT |
log updates using the
specified FMT |
| --password-file=FILE |
read daemon-access
password from FILE |
| --list-only |
list the files
instead of copying them |
| --bwlimit=KBPS |
limit I/O bandwidth;
KBytes per second |
| --write-batch=FILE |
write a batched
update to FILE |
| --only-write-batch=FILE |
like --write-batch
but w/o updating destination |
| --read-batch=FILE |
read a batched update
from FILE |
| --protocol=NUM |
force an older
protocol version to be used |
| --iconv=CONVERT_SPEC |
request charset
conversion of filenames |
| --checksum-seed=NUM |
set block/file
checksum seed (advanced) |
| -4, --ipv4 |
prefer IPv4 |
| -6, --ipv6 |
prefer IPv6 |
| --version |
print version number |
| (-h)
--help |
show this help (-h is
--help only if used alone) |
10 Practical Examples of Rsync Command in Linux
Remote Sync is a most commonly used command for copying and synchronizing files and directories remotely as well as locally in Linux systems. With the help of rsync command you can copy and synchronize your data remotely and locally across directories, across disks and networks, perform data backups and mirroring between two Linux machines.
You don’t need to be root user to run rsync command.
Advantages and features of Rsync
It efficiently copies and sync files to or from a remote system.
Supports copying links, devices, owners, groups and permissions.
It’s faster than scp (Secure Copy) because rsync uses remote-update protocol which allows to transfer just the differences between two sets of files. First time, it copies the whole content of a file or a directory from source to destination but from next time, it copies only the changed blocks and bytes to the destination.
Rsync consumes less bandwidth as it uses compression and decompression method while sending and receiving data both ends
We can install rsync package with the help of following command.
# yum install rsync (On Red Hat based systems)
# apt-get install rsync (On Debian based systems)
Basic syntax of rsync command
# rsync <options> <source> <destination>
rsync commands options
-v : verbose
-r : copies data recursively (but don’t preserve timestamps and permission while transferring data
-a : archive mode, archive mode allows copying files recursively and it also preserves symbolic links, file permissions, user & group ownerships and timestamps
-z : compress file data
-h : human-readable, output numbers in a human-readable format
========================================================
1. Copy/Sync Files and Directory Locally
This following command will sync a single file on a local machine from one location to another location.
Example, a file name
test.log.1.gz needs to be copied or synced to
/tmp/data_backup/ folder.
---------------------------------------------------------
[root@localhost mnt]#
rsync -zvh test.log.1.gz /tmp/data_backup/
created directory /tmp/data_backup
test.log.1.gz
sent 1.35K bytes received 31 bytes 2.77K bytes/sec
total size is 1.27K speedup is 0.92
---------------------------------------------------------
In above example, you can see that if the destination is not already exists rsync will create a directory automatically for destination
========================================================
The following command will transfer or sync all the files of from one directory to a different directory in the same machine
1.1 Copy/Sync Files and Directory Locally
---------------------------------------------------------
[root@localhost mnt]#
rsync -avzh test/ /tmp/data_backup/
sending
incremental file list
./
test.log.1.gz
test.log.2.gz
test.log.3.gz
sent 4.04K bytes received 72 bytes 2.74K bytes/sec
total size is 3.82K speedup is 0.93
========================================================
2. Copy/Sync Files and Directory to or From a Server
This command will sync a directory from a local machine to a remote machine.
---------------------------------------------------------
[root@localhost]$
rsync -avz test/ root@192.168.10.11:/home/
root@192.168.10.11's password:
sending incremental file list
./
test.log.1.gz
test.log.2.gz
test.log.3.gz
sent 4993369 bytes received 91 bytes 399476.80 bytes/sec
total size is 4991313 speedup is 1.00
========================================================
2.1 Copy/Sync a Remote Directory to a Local Machine
This command will help you sync a remote directory to a local directory
---------------------------------------------------------
[root@tecmint]#
rsync -avzh root@192.168.10.11:/home/test /tmp/backup/
root@192.168.10.11's password:
receiving incremental file list
created directory /tmp/backup
test.log.1.gz
test.log.2.gz
test.log.3.gz
sent 91 bytes received 4.99M bytes 322.16K bytes/sec
total size is 4.99M speedup is 1.00
========================================================
3. Rsync Over SSH
Copy a File from a Remote Server to a Local Server with SSH
To specify a protocol with rsync you need to give “-e” option with protocol name you want to use.
Here in this example, We will be using “ssh” with “-e” option and perform data transfer.
[root@localhost]#
rsync -avzhe ssh root@192.168.10.11:/var/log/mgimx/access.log /tmp/
========================================================
3.1 Copy a File from a Local Server to a Remote Server with SSH
[root@localhost]#
rsync -avzhe ssh backup.tar root@192.168.10.11:/tmp/backups/
========================================================
4. Show Progress While Transferring Data with rsync
[root@localhost]#
rsync -avzhe ssh --progress /home/demo.test root@192.168.0.100:/root/demo.test
root@192.168.0.100's password:
sending incremental file list
created directory /root/demo.test
demo.test/
demo.test/httpd-2.2.3-82.el5.centos.i386.rpm
1.02M 100% 2.72MB/s 0:00:00 (xfer#1, to-check=3/5)
demo.test/mod_ssl-2.2.3-82.el5.centos.i386.rpm
99.04K 100% 241.19kB/s 0:00:00 (xfer#2, to-check=2/5)
demo.test/nagios-3.5.0.tar.gz
1.79M 100% 1.56MB/s 0:00:01 (xfer#3, to-check=1/5)
demo.test/nagios-plugins-1.4.16.tar.gz
2.09M 100% 1.47MB/s 0:00:01 (xfer#4, to-check=0/5)
sent 4.99M bytes received 92 bytes 475.56K bytes/sec
total size is 4.99M speedup is 1.00
========================================================
5. Use of –include and –exclude Options
These two options allows us to include and exclude files by specifying parameters
with these option helps us to specify those files or directories which you want to
include in your sync and exclude files and folders with you don’t want to be transferred.
Here in this example, rsync command will include those files and directory only which
starts with ‘php’ and exclude all other files and directory.
[root@localhost]#
rsync -avze ssh --include 'php*' --exclude '*' root@192.168.0.101:/var/www/html/ /tem/demo
========================================================
6. Use of –delete Option
If a file or directory not exist at the source, but already exists at the destination,
you might want to delete that existing file/directory at the target while syncing.
We can use ‘–delete‘ option to delete files that are not there in source directory.
Source and target are in sync. Now creating new file test.txt at the target.
-------------------------------------------------------------
[root@localhost]# touch test.txt
[root@localhost]#
rsync -avz --delete root@192.168.10.11:/var/www/html/ .
Password:
receiving file list ... done
deleting test.txt
./
sent 26 bytes received 390 bytes 48.94 bytes/sec
total size is 45305958 speedup is 108908.55
----------------------------------------------------------
Target has the new file called test.txt, when synchronize with the source with ‘–delete‘ option, it removed the file test.txt.
========================================================
7. Set the Max Size of Files to be Transferred
You can specify the Max file size to be transferred or sync.
You can do it with “–max-size” option. Here in this example,
ax file size is 200k, so this command will transfer only those files which are equal or smaller than 200k.
[root@localhost]#
rsync -avzhe ssh --max-size='200k' /var/www/html/ root@192.168.0.100:/tmp/backup
========================================================
8. Automatically Delete source Files after successful Transfer
Now, suppose you have a main web server and a data backup server,
you created a daily backup and synced it with your backup server,
now you don’t want to keep that local copy of backup in your web server.
So, will you wait for transfer to complete and then delete those local backup
file manually? Of Course NO. This automatic deletion can be done using ‘–remove-source-files‘ option.
[root@localhost]#
rsync --remove-source-files -zvh backup.tar /tmp/backups/
backup.tar
sent 14.71M bytes received 31 bytes 4.20M bytes/sec
total size is 16.18M speedup is 1.10
[root@tecmint]# ll backup.tar
ls: backup.tar: No such file or directory
========================================================
9. Do a Dry Run with rsync
If you are a newbie and using rsync and don’t know what exactly your command going do.
Rsync could really mess up the things in your destination folder and then doing an undo can be a tedious job.
Use of this option will not make any changes only do a dry run of the command and shows the
output of the command, if the output shows exactly same you want to do then you can
remove ‘–dry-run‘ option from your command and run on the terminal.
root@localhost]# rsync --dry-run --remove-source-files -zvh backup.tar /tmp/backups/
backup.tar
sent 35 bytes received 15 bytes 100.00 bytes/sec
total size is 16.18M speedup is 323584.00 (DRY RUN)
========================================================
10. Set Bandwidth Limit and Transfer File
You can set the bandwidth limit while transferring data from one machine to another machine with the the help of ‘–bwlimit‘ option. This options helps us to limit I/O bandwidth.
----------------------------------------------------------
[root@localhost]#
rsync --bwlimit=100 -avzhe ssh /var/www/html/ root@192.168.0.100:/tmp/backups/
root@192.168.10.11's password:
sending incremental file list
sent 324 bytes received 12 bytes 61.09 bytes/sec
total size is 38.08M speedup is 113347.05
----------------------------------------------------------
Also, by default rsync syncs changed blocks and bytes only, if you want explicitly want to sync whole file then you use ‘-W‘ option with it.
----------------------------------------------------------
[root@localhost]#
rsync -zvhW backup.tar /tmp/backups/backup.tar
backup.tar
sent 14.71M bytes received 31 bytes 3.27M bytes/sec
total size is 16.18M speedup is 1.10
=====================================================
How to Sync Two Apache Web Servers/Websites Using Rsync
=====================================================
How to Use Rsync to Sync New or Changed/Modified Files in Linux
=====================================================
