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rsync(1)




rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)


NAME

     rsync - a fast, versatile, remote (and  local)  file-copying
     tool


SYNOPSIS

     Local:  rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [DEST]

     Access via remote shell:
       Pull: rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST:SRC... [DEST]
       Push: rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST:DEST

     Access via rsync daemon:
       Pull: rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST::SRC... [DEST]
             rsync [OPTION...] rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC... [DEST]
       Push: rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST::DEST
             rsync [OPTION...] SRC... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST

     Usages with just one SRC arg and no DEST arg will  list  the
     source files instead of copying.


DESCRIPTION

     Rsync is a fast and extraordinarily versatile  file  copying
     tool.   It  can  copy locally, to/from another host over any
     remote shell, or to/from a remote rsync daemon.  It offers a
     large  number  of  options  that control every aspect of its
     behavior and permit very flexible specification of  the  set
     of  files to be copied.  It is famous for its delta-transfer
     algorithm, which reduces the amount of data  sent  over  the
     network  by  sending only the differences between the source
     files and the existing files in the destination.   Rsync  is
     widely  used  for  backups  and mirroring and as an improved
     copy command for everyday use.

     Rsync finds files that need to be transferred using a  quick
     check  algorithm (by default) that looks for files that have
     changed in size or in last-modified time.   Any  changes  in
     the other preserved attributes (as requested by options) are
     made on the destination file directly when the  quick  check
     indicates that the files data does not need to be updated.

     Some of the additional features of rsync are:

     o    support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and
          permissions

     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 ssh  or

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          rsh

     o    does not require super-user privileges

     o    pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs

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


GENERAL

     Rsync copies files either to  or  from  a  remote  host,  or
     locally  on  the  current  host (it does not support copying
     files between two remote hosts).

     There are two different ways for rsync to contact  a  remote
     system:  using a remote-shell program as the transport (such
     as ssh or rsh) or contacting an rsync  daemon  directly  via
     TCP.  The remote-shell transport is used whenever the source
     or destination path contains a single  colon  (:)  separator
     after  a  host  specification.   Contacting  an rsync daemon
     directly happens when the source or  destination  path  con-
     tains  a double colon (::) separator after a host specifica-
     tion, OR when an rsync:// URL is  specified  (see  also  the
     USING  RSYNC-DAEMON  FEATURES  VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION
     section for an exception to this latter rule).

     As a special case, if  a  single  source  arg  is  specified
     without  a  destination,  the  files are listed in an output
     format similar to ls -l.

     As expected, if  neither  the  source  or  destination  path
     specify a remote host, the copy occurs locally (see also the
     --list-only option).

     Rsync refers to the local side as the client and the  remote
     side  as the server.  Dont confuse server with an rsync dae-
     mon -- a daemon is always a server,  but  a  server  can  be
     either a daemon or a remote-shell spawned process.


SETUP

     See the file README for installation instructions.

     Once installed, you can use rsync to any  machine  that  you
     can  access via a remote shell (as well as some that you can
     access using the rsync daemon-mode  protocol).   For  remote
     transfers,  a  modern rsync uses ssh for its communications,
     but it may have been configured to use  a  different  remote
     shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.

     You can also specify any remote shell you  like,  either  by
     using  the  -e  command  line  option,  or  by  setting  the

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

     RSYNC_RSH environment variable.

     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  with  some
     examples:

          rsync -t *.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 protocol is used to update the
     file by sending only the differences in the data.  Note that
     the  expansion  of wildcards on the commandline (*.c) into a
     list of files is handled by the shell before it  runs  rsync
     and  not  by  rsync  itself  (exactly  the same as all other
     posix-style programs).

          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  symbolic links, devices, attri-
     butes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are  preserved  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
     avoid creating an additional directory level at the destina-
     tion.  You can think of a trailing / on a source as  meaning
     copy  the  contents of this directory as opposed to copy the
     directory by name, but in both cases the attributes  of  the
     containing  directory  are  transferred  to  the  containing
     directory on the destination.  In other words, each  of  the
     following commands copies the files in the same way, includ-
     ing their setting of the attributes of /dest/foo:

          rsync -av /src/foo /dest
          rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

     Note also that host and module  references  dont  require  a
     trailing  slash  to  copy the contents of the default direc-
     tory.  For example, both of these copy the remote directorys
     contents into /dest:

          rsync -av host: /dest
          rsync -av host::module /dest

     You can also use rsync in local-only mode,  where  both  the
     source  and  destination  dont have a : in the name. In this
     case it behaves like an improved copy command.

     Finally, you can list all the (listable)  modules  available
     from  a  particular  rsync  daemon by leaving off the module
     name:

          rsync somehost.mydomain.com::

     See the following section for more details.


ADVANCED USAGE

     The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote  host
     is  done  by  specifying  additional remote-host args in the
     same style as the first, or with the hostname omitted.   For
     instance, all these work:

          rsync -av host:file1 :file2 host:file{3,4} /dest/
          rsync -av  host::modname/file{1,2}  host::modname/file3
          /dest/
          rsync -av host::modname/file1 ::modname/file{3,4}

     Older versions of rsync required using quoted spaces in  the
     SRC, like these examples:

          rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest
          rsync   host::'modname/dir1/file1   modname/dir2/file2'
          /dest

     This word-splitting still works (by default) in  the  latest
     rsync, but is not as easy to use as the first method.

     If you need to transfer a filename that contains whitespace,
     you  can  either  specify the --protect-args (-s) option, or
     youll need to escape the whitespace in a way that the remote
     shell will understand.  For instance:

          rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)


CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON

     It is also possible to use rsync without a remote  shell  as
     the  transport.  In this case you will directly connect to a
     remote rsync daemon, typically using TCP  port  873.   (This
     obviously  requires  the  daemon to be running on the remote
     system, so refer to the STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON  TO  ACCEPT
     CONNECTIONS section below for information on that.)

     Using rsync in this way is the  same  as  using  it  with  a
     remote shell except that:

     o    you either use a double colon :: instead  of  a  single
          colon  to  separate  the hostname from the path, or you
          use an rsync:// URL.

     o    the first word of the path is actually a module name.

     o    the remote daemon may print a message of the  day  when
          you connect.

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

     o    if you specify no local destination then a  listing  of
          the specified files on the remote daemon is provided.

     o    you must not specify the --rsh (-e) option.

     An example that copies all the  files  in  a  remote  module
     named src:

         rsync -av host::src /dest

     Some modules on the remote daemon  may  require  authentica-
     tion.  If  so,  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 use-
     ful when scripting rsync.

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

     You may establish the connection via a web proxy by  setting
     the environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair
     pointing to your web proxy.  Note that your web proxys  con-
     figuration must support proxy connections to port 873.

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

     You may also establish a daemon connection using  a  program
     as   a   proxy   by   setting   the   environment   variable
     RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG to the commands you wish to run in  place
     of  making  a direct socket connection.  The string may con-
     tain the escape %H to represent the  hostname  specified  in
     the  rsync command (so use %% if you need a single % in your
     string).  For example:

       export RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG='ssh proxyhost nc %H 873'
       rsync -av targethost1::module/src/ /dest/
       rsync -av rsync:://targethost2/module/src/ /dest/

     The command specified above uses ssh to run nc (netcat) on a
     proxyhost,  which  forwards  all data to port 873 (the rsync
     daemon) on the targethost (%H).


USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION

     It is sometimes useful to use various features of  an  rsync
     daemon (such as named modules) without actually allowing any
     new socket connections into a system  (other  than  what  is
     already  required to allow remote-shell access).  Rsync sup-
     ports connecting to a host using a  remote  shell  and  then
     spawning a single-use daemon server that expects to read its
     config file in the home dir of the remote user.  This can be
     useful if you want to encrypt a daemon-style transfers data,
     but since the daemon is started up fresh by the remote user,
     you may not be able to use features such as chroot or change
     the uid used by the daemon.  (For another way to  encrypt  a
     daemon  transfer,  consider using ssh to tunnel a local port
     to a remote machine and configure a normal rsync  daemon  on
     that remote host to only allow connections from localhost.)

     From  the  users  perspective,  a  daemon  transfer  via   a
     remote-shell  connection  uses  nearly the same command-line
     syntax as a normal  rsync-daemon  transfer,  with  the  only
     exception  being  that  you  must  explicitly set the remote
     shell program on the  command-line  with  the  --rsh=COMMAND
     option.   (Setting the RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not
     turn on this functionality.)  For example:

         rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest

     If you need to specify a different remote-shell  user,  keep
     in mind that the user@ prefix in front of the host is speci-
     fying the rsync-user  value  (for  a  module  that  requires
     user-based  authentication).   This means that you must give
     the -l user option to ssh when specifying the  remote-shell,
     as  in this example that uses the short version of the --rsh
     option:

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

         rsync -av -e ssh -l ssh-user rsync-user@host::module /dest

     The ssh-user will be used at the ssh level;  the  rsync-user
     will be used to log-in to the module.


STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS

     In order to connect to an rsync daemon,  the  remote  system
     needs  to have a daemon already running (or it needs to have
     configured something like inetd to spawn an rsync daemon for
     incoming connections on a particular port).  For full infor-
     mation on how to start a daemon that will handling  incoming
     socket  connections, see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page -- that
     is the config file for the daemon, and it contains the  full
     details for how to run the daemon (including stand-alone and
     inetd configurations).

     If youre using one of the remote-shell  transports  for  the
     transfer,  there  is no need to manually start an rsync dae-
     mon.


SORTED TRANSFER ORDER

     Rsync always sorts the specified filenames into its internal
     transfer  list.   This  handles  the merging together of the
     contents of identically named directories, makes it easy  to
     remove duplicate filenames, and may confuse someone when the
     files are transferred in a different  order  than  what  was
     given on the command-line.

     If you need a particular file to  be  transferred  prior  to
     another,  either  separate  the  files  into different rsync
     calls,  or  consider  using  --delay-updates  (which  doesnt
     affect  the  sorted  transfer order, but does make the final
     file-updating phase happen much more rapidly).


EXAMPLES

     Here are some examples of how I use rsync.

     To backup my wifes 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 connection to a duplicate directory on
     my machine arvidsjaur.

     To synchronize my samba source trees  I  use  the  following
     Makefile targets:

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

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

         put:
                 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
         sync: get put

     this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end
     of  the  connection.  I then do CVS operations on the remote
     machine, which saves a lot of time as the remote CVS  proto-
     col isnt very efficient.

     I mirror a directory between my old and new ftp  sites  with
     the command:

     rsync     -az     -e     ssh     --delete     ~ftp/pub/samba
     nimbus:~ftp/pub/tridge

     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 com-
     plete description.

      -v, --verbose               increase verbosity
          --info=FLAGS            fine-grained informational verbosity
          --debug=FLAGS           fine-grained debug verbosity
          --msgs2stderr           special output handling for debugging
      -q, --quiet                 suppress non-error messages
          --no-motd               suppress daemon-mode MOTD (see 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         backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
      -u, --update                skip files that are newer on the receiver
          --inplace               update destination files in-place
          --append                append data onto shorter files
          --append-verify         --append w/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 tree
          --munge-links           munge symlinks to make them safer
      -k, --copy-dirlinks         transform symlink to dir into referent dir
      -K, --keep-dirlinks         treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
      -H, --hard-links            preserve hard links
      -p, --perms                 preserve permissions

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

      -E, --executability         preserve executability
          --chmod=CHMOD           affect file and/or directory permissions
      -A, --acls                  preserve ACLs (implies -p)
      -X, --xattrs                preserve extended attributes
      -o, --owner                 preserve owner (super-user only)
      -g, --group                 preserve group
          --devices               preserve device files (super-user only)
          --specials              preserve special files
      -D                          same as --devices --specials
      -t, --times                 preserve modification times
      -O, --omit-dir-times        omit directories from --times
      -J, --omit-link-times       omit symlinks from --times
          --super                 receiver attempts super-user activities
          --fake-super            store/recover privileged attrs using xattrs
      -S, --sparse                handle sparse files efficiently
          --preallocate           allocate dest files before writing
      -n, --dry-run               perform a trial run with no changes made
      -W, --whole-file            copy files whole (w/o 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 remote machine
          --existing              skip creating new files on receiver
          --ignore-existing       skip updating files that exist on receiver
          --remove-source-files   sender removes synchronized files (non-dir)
          --del                   an alias for --delete-during
          --delete                delete extraneous files from dest dirs
          --delete-before         receiver deletes before xfer, 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 dest dirs
          --ignore-missing-args   ignore missing source args without error
          --delete-missing-args   delete missing source args from destination
          --ignore-errors         delete even if there are I/O errors
          --force                 force deletion of dirs 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 end
      -m, --prune-empty-dirs      prune empty directory chains from file-list
          --numeric-ids           don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
          --usermap=STRING        custom username mapping
          --groupmap=STRING       custom groupname mapping
          --chown=USER:GROUP      simple username/groupname mapping
          --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 size and time
          --size-only             skip files that match in size
          --modify-window=NUM     compare mod-times with reduced accuracy

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

      -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 received 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 suffix in LIST
      -C, --cvs-exclude           auto-ignore files in 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; wildcard chars only
          --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
          --outbuf=N|L|B          set out buffering to None, Line, or Block
          --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
      -M, --remote-option=OPTION  send OPTION to the remote side only
          --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=RATE          limit socket I/O bandwidth
          --write-batch=FILE      write a batched update to FILE
          --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
          --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 (see below for -h comment)

     Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the follow-
     ing options are accepted:

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          --daemon                run as an rsync daemon
          --address=ADDRESS       bind to the specified address
          --bwlimit=RATE          limit socket I/O bandwidth
          --config=FILE           specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
      -M, --dparam=OVERRIDE       override global daemon config parameter
          --no-detach             do not detach from the parent
          --port=PORT             listen on alternate port number
          --log-file=FILE         override the log file setting
          --log-file-format=FMT   override the log format setting
          --sockopts=OPTIONS      specify custom TCP options
      -v, --verbose               increase verbosity
      -4, --ipv4                  prefer IPv4
      -6, --ipv6                  prefer IPv6
      -h, --help                  show this help (if used after --daemon)


OPTIONS

     Rsync accepts both  long  (double-dash  +  word)  and  short
     (single-dash + letter) options.  The full list of the avail-
     able 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 shells command-line  pars-
     ing.  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
          Print a short help page describing the  options  avail-
          able  in  rsync  and  exit.  For backward-compatibility
          with older versions of rsync, the  help  will  also  be
          output if you use the -h option without any other args.

     --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 transferred and a brief summary at
          the end. Two -v options will give  you  information  on
          what   files   are  being  skipped  and  slightly  more

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          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 daemons  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
          daemons 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=names  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 under-
          stand them).  See also the max verbosity  caveat  above
          when dealing with a daemon.

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

     --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
          --msgs2stderr is specified, especially those pertaining
          to I/O and buffer debugging.

          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 under-
          stand them).  See also the max verbosity  caveat  above
          when dealing with a daemon.

     --msgs2stderr
          This option  changes  rsync  to  send  all  its  output
          directly  to stderr rather than to send messages to the
          client side via the protocol  (which  normally  outputs
          info messages via stdout).  This is mainly intended for
          debugging in order to avoid changing the data sent  via
          the  protocol, since the extra protocol data can change
          what is being tested.  The option does not  affect  the
          remote side of a transfer without using --remote-option
          -- e.g. -M--msgs2stderr.  Also keep in mind that a dae-
          mon  connection  does not have a stderr channel to send
          messages back to the client side, so if you  are  doing
          any  daemon-transfer  debugging  using this option, you
          should start up a daemon using --no-detach so that  you
          can see the stderr output on the daemon side.

          This option has the side-effect of making stderr output
          get  line-buffered so that the merging of the output of
          3 programs happens in a more readable manner.

     -q, --quiet

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          This option decreases the amount of information you are
          given during the transfer, notably suppressing informa-
          tion 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 limi-
          tation  in  the rsync protocol), so omit this option if
          you want to request the list of modules from  the  dae-
          mon.

     -I, --ignore-times
          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,  caus-
          ing all files to be updated.

     --size-only
          This modifies rsyncs 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 mirror-
          ing system which may not preserve timestamps exactly.

     --modify-window
          When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the  times-
          tamps as being equal if they differ by no more than the
          modify-window value.  This is normally 0 (for an  exact
          match),  but  you  may  find it useful to set this to a
          larger value in some situations.  In  particular,  when
          transferring  to  or  from an MS Windows FAT filesystem
          (which represents times with  a  2-second  resolution),
          --modify-window=1  is  useful (allowing times to differ
          by up to 1 second).

     -c, --checksum

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          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 files 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  check-
          sums  means  that  both sides will expend a lot of disk
          I/O reading all the data in the files in  the  transfer
          (and  this is prior to any reading that will be done to
          transfer changed files), so this can slow  things  down
          significantly.

          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 check-
          sum any file that has the same size as the  correspond-
          ing  senders 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 options before-the-transfer Does this file need to
          be updated? check.

          For protocol 30 and beyond (first supported in  3.0.0),
          the  checksum  used  is  MD5.  For older protocols, the
          checksum used is MD4.

     -a, --archive
          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 find-
          ing  multiply-linked  files  is  expensive.   You  must
          separately specify -H.

     --no-OPTION
          You may turn off one or more implied options by prefix-
          ing  the  option name with no-.  Not all options may be

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          prefixed with a no-:  only options that are implied  by
          other  options  (e.g.  --no-D, --no-perms) or have dif-
          ferent  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 dont
          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 posi-
          tional, as it affects  the  default  state  of  several
          options and slightly changes the meaning of -a (see the
          --files-from option for more details).

     -r, --recursive
          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 com-
          pleted.  This incremental scan only affects our  recur-
          sion  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.

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

     -R, --relative
          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/

          ... this 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
          didnt  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 youre 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  infor-
          mation  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 ver-
          sions,  you  would  need  to  use  a chdir to limit the
          source path.  For example, when pushing files:

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

             (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 doesnt remain in
          effect for future commands.)  If  youre  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 --rela-
          tive  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  attri-
          butes.  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 ordi-
          narily 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 direc-
          tories.

     -b, --backup

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          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 dont  specify  --backup-dir,  (1)  the
          --omit-dir-times  option  will  be  implied, 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
          In combination with the  --backup  option,  this  tells
          rsync  to  store all backups in the specified directory
          on the receiving side.  This can be used for  incremen-
          tal  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 direc-
          tory, so you probably want to specify either  an  abso-
          lute  path or a path that starts with ../.  If an rsync
          daemon is the receiver, the backup dir cannot  go  out-
          side the modules 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,  other-
          wise it is an empty string.

     -u, --update
          This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on  the
          destination and have a modified time that is newer than

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          the source file.  (If an existing destination file  has
          a  modification time equal to the source files, 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
          doesnt  affect  the data that goes into the file-lists,
          and thus it doesnt 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 des-
               tination 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 files 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 suc-
               cessful.

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          o    The efficiency of rsyncs 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 sys-
          tems 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 causes rsync to update a file  by  appending  data
          onto  the end of the file, which presumes that the data
          that already exists on the receiving side is  identical
          with  the  start of the file on the sending side.  If a
          file needs to  be  transferred  and  its  size  on  the
          receiver  is  the  same  or longer than the size on the
          sender, the file is skipped.  This does  not  interfere
          with  the  updating  of  a files 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 non-regular files.  Implies  --inplace,
          but does not conflict with --sparse (since it is always
          extending a files length).

          The use of --append can be dangerous if you arent  100%
          sure  that the files that are longer have only grown by
          the appending of data onto the end.   You  should  thus
          use  include/exclude/filter rules to ensure that such a
          transfer is only affecting files that you  know  to  be
          growing via appended data.

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

     --append-verify
          This works just  like  the  --append  option,  but  the
          existing  data on the receiving side is included in the
          full-file checksum verification step, which will  cause
          a  file  to  be  resent  if the final verification step
          fails (rsync uses  a  normal,  non-appending  --inplace
          transfer for the resend).

          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.

     -d, --dirs
          Tell the sending side to include any  directories  that
          are encountered.  Unlike --recursive, a directorys con-
          tents are not copied unless the directory  name  speci-
          fied 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 wasnt  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.

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

     -L, --copy-links
          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

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          rsync   such   as  this  one,  youll  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.

     --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  dont  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

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          code.

     -k, --copy-dirlinks
          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   dont   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 speci-
          fied 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 exam-
          ple:

          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/./.

     -K, --keep-dirlinks
          This option causes the receiving side to treat  a  sym-
          link 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 receivers 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 direc-
          tory, and receives the file  into  the  new  directory.
          With  --keep-dirlinks,  the  receiver keeps the symlink

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          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 pos-
          sible 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.

     -H, --hard-links
          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  pat-
          tern  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  con-
               tains  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 bro-
          ken.  If you are tempted to use the --inplace option to
          avoid  this breakage, be very careful that you know how

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          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  else-
          where in the hierarchy.  This does not affect the accu-
          racy 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.

     -p, --perms
          This option causes the receiving rsync to set the  des-
          tination  permissions to be the same as the source per-
          missions.  (See also the --chmod option for  a  way  to
          modify  what  rsync  considers to be the source permis-
          sions.)

          When this option is off, permissions are  set  as  fol-
          lows:

          o    Existing files (including  updated  files)  retain
               their  existing permissions, though the --executa-
               bility option might change just the  execute  per-
               mission for the file.

          o    New files get their normal permission bits set  to
               the  source  files  permissions  masked  with  the
               receiving directorys default  permissions  (either
               the  receiving  processs umask, or the permissions
               specified via the destination  directorys  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  dis-
          abled,  rsyncs  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

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          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 youd
          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  destinations  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  over-
          riding   the  destinations  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.)

     -E, --executability
          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  exe-
          cutable  if  at least one x is turned on in its permis-
          sions.  When an existing destination files  executabil-
          ity differs from that of the corresponding source file,
          rsync modifies the  destination  files  permissions  as
          follows:

          o    To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all
               its x permissions.

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          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.

     -A, --acls
          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.

     -X, --xattrs
          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.

          Note that this option  does  not  copy  rsyncs  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
          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

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          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.

     -o, --owner
          This option causes rsync to set the owner of the desti-
          nation 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).

     -g, --group
          This option causes rsync to set the group of the desti-
          nation  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.

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          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.

     -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,
          causing  all  files  to  be  updated   (though   rsyncs
          delta-transfer  algorithm  will  make the update fairly
          efficient if the files havent actually  changed,  youre
          much better off using -t).

     -O, --omit-dir-times
          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

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          set  the modify time of the parent directory right away
          (without having to delay that until a bunch  of  recur-
          sive 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 direc-
          tories dont have accurate mode,  mtime,  or  ownership,
          the  use  of this option can help when someone wants to
          avoid these partially-finished directories.

     -J, --omit-link-times
          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 wasnt run by the
          super-user.  These activities include: preserving users
          via the --owner option, preserving all groups (not just
          the current users groups) via the --groups option,  and
          copying devices via the --devices option.  This is use-
          ful for systems  that  allow  such  activities  without
          being  the  super-user,  and also for ensuring that you
          will get errors if the receiving side isnt 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 attri-
          butes via special extended attributes that are attached
          to  each  file  (as  needed).   This includes the files
          owner and group (if it is not the default),  the  files
          device  info  (device  &  special  files are created as
          empty text files), and any permission bits that we wont
          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
          owners  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 speci-
          fied).

          This is a good way  to  backup  data  without  using  a
          super-user,  and  to  store ACLs from incompatible sys-
          tems.

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          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   daemons
          rsyncd.conf file.

     -S, --sparse
          Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take  up
          less   space   on   the  destination.   Conflicts  with
          --inplace because its not possible to overwrite data in
          a sparse fashion.

     --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 Linuxs fallocate(2)
          system call or Cygwins posix_fallocate(3), not the slow
          glibc  implementation that writes a zero 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  destina-
          tion  is  not  an extent-supporting filesystem (such as
          ext4, xfs, NTFS, etc.), this option may have  no  posi-
          tive effect at all.

     -n, --dry-run
          This makes rsync perform a trial run that  doesnt  make

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          any  changes  (and produces mostly the same output as a
          real run).  It is most  commonly  used  in  combination
          with  the  -v,  --verbose  and/or -i, --itemize-changes
          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  isnt,  thats  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.

     -W, --whole-file
          With this option rsyncs delta-transfer 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 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.

     -x, --one-file-system
          This tells rsync to avoid crossing a  filesystem  boun-
          dary  when  recursing.   This  does not limit the users
          ability to specify items to copy from multiple filesys-
          tems,  just  rsyncs  recursion through the hierarchy of
          each directory that the user specified,  and  also  the
          analogous  recursion on the receiving side during dele-
          tion.  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 inac-
          cessible).

          If rsync  has  been  told  to  collapse  symlinks  (via
          --copy-links  or  --copy-unsafe-links),  a symlink to a

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          directory  on  another  device  is   treated   like   a
          mount-point.   Symlinks  to  non-directories  are unaf-
          fected 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
          doesnt  affect  the data that goes into the file-lists,
          and thus it doesnt 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
          doesnt  affect  the data that goes into the file-lists,
          and thus it doesnt 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 dont get tweaked (which
          avoids a  change  in  permissions  on  the  hard-linked
          files).   This does mean that this option is only look-
          ing 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

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          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 cant possibly transfer a file
          that is not yet fully written.  If you cant 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 files size or
          modify time has not stayed unchanged.

     --delete
          This tells rsync to delete extraneous  files  from  the
          receiving  side  (ones that arent on the sending side),
          but only for the directories that are  being  synchron-
          ized.   You  must  have  asked  rsync to send the whole
          directory (e.g. dir or dir/) without using  a  wildcard
          for  the  directorys  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.

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          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 filesys-
          tem  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  algo-
          rithm  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

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          names (it is removed while open, so you shouldnt 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 use-
          ful 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

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          (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 dont
          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 didnt warn when the limit was exceeded).

     --max-size=SIZE

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is
          larger  than  the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
          suffixed with a string to indicate a  size  multiplier,
          and may be a fractional value (e.g. --max-size=1.5m).

          This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude,  so  it
          doesnt  affect  the data that goes into the file-lists,
          and thus it doesnt affect deletions.   It  just  limits
          the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.

          The suffixes are as follows: K (or KiB) is  a  kibibyte
          (1024), M (or MiB) is a mebibyte (1024*1024), and G (or
          GiB) is a gibibyte (1024*1024*1024).  If you  want  the
          multiplier  to  be 1000 instead of 1024, use KB, MB, or
          GB.   (Note:  lower-case  is  also  accepted  for   all
          values.)   Finally,  if the suffix ends in either +1 or
          -1, the value will be offset by one byte in  the  indi-
          cated direction.

          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.

     -B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE
          This   forces   the   block   size   used   in   rsyncs
          delta-transfer  algorithm to a fixed value.  It is nor-
          mally selected based on the size  of  each  file  being
          updated.  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. Typically,  rsync  is
          configured to use ssh by default, but you may prefer to
          use rsh on a local network.

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          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 sec-
          tion USING RSYNC-DAEMON  FEATURES  VIA  A  REMOTE-SHELL
          CONNECTION above.

          Command-line arguments are permitted  in  COMMAND  pro-
          vided  that  COMMAND  is presented to rsync as a single
          argument.  You must use spaces (not tabs or other  whi-
          tespace)  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-shells  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  pro-
          gram,  script, or command sequence youd 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 direc-
          tory  on the remote machine for use with the --relative

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          option.  For instance:

              rsync -avR --rsync-path=cd /a/b &&  rsync  host:c/d
          /e/

     -M, --remote-option=OPTION
          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
          useage 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.

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

     -C, --cvs-exclude
          This is a useful shorthand for excluding a broad  range
          of  files  that you often dont want to transfer between
          systems. It uses a similar algorithm to CVS  to  deter-
          mine if a file should be ignored.

          The exclude list is initialized to exclude the  follow-
          ing 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 environ-
          ment 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 rsyncs  filter/exclude
          files, these patterns are split on whitespace.  See the
          cvs(1) manual for more information.

          If youre 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.

     -f, --filter=RULE
          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.

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          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

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          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 speci-
          fied 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) options 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

                    Last change: 21 Dec 2015                   44

rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

               or after --files-from,  as  does  --no-R  and  all
               other options).

          The filenames that are read from the FILE are all rela-
          tive  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  trail-
          ing  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  dirs
          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 hosts charset to the receiving hosts char-
          set.

          NOTE: sorting the list of  files  in  the  --files-from

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          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.

     -0, --from0
          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).

     -s, --protect-args
          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 vari-
          able 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  ver-
          sions).   Since  this  option  was  first introduced in
          3.0.0, youll need to make sure its 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).   This
          option  will eventually become a new default setting at

                    Last change: 21 Dec 2015                   46

rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          some as-yet-undetermined point in the future.

     -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 each temporary file in the same
          directory as the associated destination  file.   Begin-
          ning  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 tem-
          porary 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 desti-
          nation hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer.  If
          you dont have enough room to duplicate all the arriving
          files on the destination partition, another way to tell
          rsync  that you arent 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 destina-
          tion  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.)

     -y, --fuzzy

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          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 identi-
          cal 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  destina-
          tion machine as an additional hierarchy to compare des-
          tination 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 senders  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 attri-
          butes, 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 desti-
          nation    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).

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

     --copy-dest=DIR
          This option behaves like --compare-dest, but rsync will
          also  copy unchanged files found in DIR to the destina-
          tion 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 speci-
          fied 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 desti-
          nation   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 owner-
          ship) in order for the files to be linked together.  An
          example:

            rsync  -av  --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir  host:src_dir/
          new_dir/

          If files arent linking, double-check their  attributes.
          Also  check  if some attributes are getting forced out-
          side of rsyncs control, such a mount option  that  squ-
          ishes  root  to  a  single  user, or mounts a removable
          drive with generic ownership (such as OS Xs Ignore own-
          ership on this volume option).

          Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple --link-dest direc-
          tories  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 attri-
          butes, 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  des-
          tination  hierarchy,  as  existing  files may get their
          attributes tweaked, and that can affect alternate  des-
          tination  files  via  hard-links.   Also,  itemizing of

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          changes can get a bit muddled.  Note that prior to ver-
          sion  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 addi-
          tional check after the file is updated.

          If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the desti-
          nation   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.

     -z, --compress
          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.

          Note  that  this  option  typically   achieves   better
          compression  ratios  than  can  be  achieved by using a
          compressing remote shell  or  a  compressing  transport
          because  it takes advantage of the implicit information
          in the matching data blocks  that  are  not  explicitly
          sent  over the connection.  This matching-data compres-
          sion comes at a cost of CPU, though, and  can  be  dis-
          abled  by  repeating  the  -z  option, but only if both
          sides are at least version 3.1.1.

          Note that if your version of rsync was compiled with an
          external  zlib (instead of the zlib that comes packaged
          with rsync) then it  will  not  support  the  old-style
          compression,   only   the  new-style  (repeated-option)
          compression.  In the future this new-style  compression
          will likely become the default.

          The client rsync requests new-style compression on  the
          server  via  the  --new-compress  option, so if you see
          that option rejected it means that the  server  is  not
          new  enough  to  support  -zz.   Rsync also accepts the
          --old-compress option for a future time when  new-style
          compression becomes the default.

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          See the --skip-compress option for the default list  of
          file suffixes that will not be compressed.

     --compress-level=NUM
          Explicitly  set  the  compression  level  to  use  (see
          --compress)  instead  of letting it default.  If NUM is
          non-zero, the --compress option is implied.

     --skip-compress=LIST
          Override the list of file suffixes  that  will  not  be
          compressed.   The  LIST should be one or more file suf-
          fixes (without the dot) separated by slashes (/).

          You may specify an empty string  to  indicate  that  no
          file 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  sup-
          ported, and - has no special meaning).

          The characters asterisk (*) and question-mark (?)  have
          no special meaning.

          Heres 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  list  of  suffixes  that  will   not   be
          compressed is this (in this version of rsync):

          7z ace avi bz2 deb gpg gz iso jpeg jpg lz lzma lzo  mov
          mp3 mp4 ogg png rar rpm rzip tbz tgz tlz txz xz z zip

          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

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          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 rsyncs 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
          senders names  (wild-cards  do  NOT  match  against  ID
          numbers,  though  see  below for why a * matches every-
          thing).  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 sin-
          gle --usermap option, and/or all  your  group  mappings
          using a single --groupmap option.

          Note that the senders 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

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          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 hav-
          ing 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.

     --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  imple-
          mented  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.

     --timeout=TIMEOUT
          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
          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.

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

     --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  host-
          name) 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
          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 set-
          sockopt() 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 rsyncs output is going to a file
          or pipe.

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

     -i, --itemize-changes
          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 ver-
          sions 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 YXcstpo-
          guax, 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  occur-
               ring  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 dev-
          ice, and a S for a special file (e.g. named sockets and
          fifos).

          The other letters in the string above  are  the  actual
          letters that will be output if the associated attribute
          for the item is being updated or a  .  for  no  change.

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          Three  exceptions to this are: (1) a newly created item
          replaces each letter with a +, (2)  an  identical  item
          replaces  the  dots  with  spaces,  and  (3) an unknown
          attribute replaces each letter with a ? (this can  hap-
          pen when talking to an older rsync).

          The attribute that is associated with each letter is as
          follows:

          o    A c means either that a regular file  has  a  dif-
               ferent  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 senders 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  cant  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  senders  value  (requires
               --perms).

          o    An o means the owner is  different  and  is  being
               updated to the senders value (requires --owner and
               super-user privileges).

          o    A g means the group  is  different  and  is  being
               updated to the senders value (requires --group and
               the authority to set the group).

          o    The u slot is reserved for future use.

          o    The a means that the ACL information changed.

          o    The x means that the extended  attribute  informa-
               tion changed.

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          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 per-
          cent (%) 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 pos-
          sible 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
          files  transfer  unless  one  of the transfer-statistic
          escapes is requested, in which case the logging is done
          at  the end of the files transfer.  When this late log-
          ging is in effect and  --progress  is  also  specified,
          rsync  will  also  output  the  name  of the file being
          transferred prior to  its  progress  information  (fol-
          lowed, 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.

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          Heres 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  connec-
          tion is closing unexpectedly.

     --log-file-format=FORMAT
          This allows you to specify exactly what per-update log-
          ging  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 effec-
          tive rsyncs 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, sym-
               links, 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).

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          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 rsyncs
               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  dont count the bytes for a

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

               verbose message that the server sent to us,  which
               makes the stats more consistent.

     -8, --8-bit-output
          This tells rsync to leave all high-bit characters unes-
          caped  in  the output instead of trying to test them to
          see if theyre valid in the current locale and  escaping
          the  invalid  ones.   All control characters (but never
          tabs) are always escaped, regardless  of  this  options
          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).

     -h, --human-readable
          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 specif-
          ing 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), or T (tera).  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 didnt specify a  --no-h
          option  prior  to  one  or  more  -h  options.  See the
          --list-only option for one difference.

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

     --partial
          By default, rsync will delete any partially transferred
          file  if  the  transfer  is  interrupted.  In some cir-
          cumstances it  is  more  desirable  to  keep  partially
          transferred  files.  Using  the  --partial option tells
          rsync to keep the partial file which should make a sub-
          sequent 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 des-
          tination file).  On the next transfer, rsync will use a
          file found in this dir as data to speed up the  resump-
          tion  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 rsyncs delta-transfer algo-
          rithm).

          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  files  directory
          when  needed, and then remove it again when the partial
          file is deleted.

          If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync
          will  add an exclude rule at the end of all your exist-
          ing 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  rsyncs  exclude  choice.   For
          instance,  if  you  want  to  make  rsync  clean-up any
          left-over partial-dirs that may be  lying  around,  you

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rsync(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   rsync(1)

          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 dont need
          rsync to use any of the left-over partial-dir data dur-
          ing 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 speci-
          fied (see below).

          For the purposes of the daemon-configs  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 files destination directory, but if  youve  speci-
          fied  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 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

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          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
          cant 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).

     -m, --prune-empty-dirs
          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 use-
          less 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 per-
          ishable filter-rule option for how to avoid this.

          You can prevent the pruning  of  certain  empty  direc-
          tories  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/

          Heres 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 destina-
          tion   are   removed   (note   the   hide   filter   of

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          non-directories being used instead of an exclude):

          rsync -avm --del --include=*.pdf -f hide,! */ src/ dest

          If you didnt 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  pre-
          cedence (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 senders file, which is being recon-
          structed 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   rsyncs
          delta-transfer  algorithm  is  in use.  For example, if
          the senders 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 finish-
          ing 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

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          was 146.38 kilobytes per second over the 8 seconds that
          it took to complete, it was the 5th transfer of a regu-
          lar 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 wont  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  inter-
          rupted.

          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 dont need to
          specify  the  --progress  option  in   order   to   use
          --info=progress2.)

     --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 shells documentation.  When  access-
          ing  an  rsync daemon using a remote shell as the tran-
          sport, this option only comes  into  effect  after  the

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          remote  shell  finishes its authentication (i.e. if you
          have also specified a password in  the  daemons  config
          file).

     --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  speci-
          fied,  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 charac-
          ters 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  dont  have that option.  To avoid this problem,
          either specify the --no-dirs option (if you  dont  need
          to  expand  a directorys 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

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          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 zero 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.

     --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.

     --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 dont 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

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          batch  file without having to flow over the wire to the
          receiver (when pulling, the sender is remote, and  thus
          cant write the batch).

     --read-batch=FILE
          Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a file  previ-
          ously  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 cant
          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 youre 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

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          up to you to  ensure  that  youre  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).

     -4, --ipv4 or -6, --ipv6
          Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating  sockets.
          This only affects sockets that rsync has direct control
          over, such as the outgoing socket  when  directly  con-
          tacting an rsync daemon.  See also these options in the
          --daemon mode section.

          If rsync was complied without  support  for  IPv6,  the
          --ipv6  option will have no effect.  The --version out-
          put will tell you if this 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  check-
          sums dont 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 check-
          sum 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 check-
          sum seed.


DAEMON OPTIONS

     The options allowed when starting an  rsync  daemon  are  as
     follows:

     --daemon
          This tells rsync that it is to run as  a  daemon.   The
          daemon you start running may be accessed using an rsync
          client using the host::module  or  rsync://host/module/
          syntax.

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          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  back-
          ground  daemon.   The  daemon will read the config file
          (rsyncd.conf) on each connect  made  by  a  client  and
          respond    to    requests    accordingly.     See   the
          rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more details.

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

     --bwlimit=RATE
          This option allows you to specify the maximum  transfer
          rate  for  the  data  the daemon sends over the socket.
          The client can still specify a smaller --bwlimit value,
          but  no  larger  value will be allowed.  See the client
          version of this option (above) for some extra details.

     --config=FILE
          This  specifies  an  alternate  config  file  than  the
          default.  This is only relevant when --daemon is speci-
          fied.  The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the  dae-
          mon  is  running  over  a  remote shell program and the
          remote user is not the super-user;  in  that  case  the
          default  is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typi-
          cally $HOME).

     -M, --dparam=OVERRIDE
          This option can be used to set a daemon-config  parame-
          ter  when  starting  up  rsync  in  daemon mode.  It is
          equivalent to adding the parameter at the  end  of  the
          global  settings prior to the first modules definition.
          The parameter names can be specified without spaces, if
          you so desire.  For instance:

              rsync --daemon -M pidfile=/path/rsync.pid

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     --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  AIXs  System
          Resource  Controller.   --no-detach is also recommended
          when rsync is run under a debugger.  This option has no
          effect if rsync is run from inetd or sshd.

     --port=PORT
          This specifies an alternate TCP  port  number  for  the
          daemon  to  listen  on  rather than the default of 873.
          See also the port global option in the rsyncd.conf man-
          page.

     --log-file=FILE
          This option tells the rsync daemon  to  use  the  given
          log-file  name instead of using the log file setting in
          the config file.

     --log-file-format=FORMAT
          This option tells the rsync daemon  to  use  the  given
          FORMAT  string  instead of using the log format setting
          in the config file.  It also enables  transfer  logging
          unless the string is empty, in which case transfer log-
          ging is turned off.

     --sockopts
          This  overrides  the  socket  options  setting  in  the
          rsyncd.conf file and has the same syntax.

     -v, --verbose
          This option increases the  amount  of  information  the
          daemon logs during its startup phase.  After the client
          connects, the daemons  verbosity  level  will  be  con-
          trolled by the options that the client used and the max
          verbosity setting in the modules config section.

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     -4, --ipv4 or -6, --ipv6
          Tells rsync  to  prefer  IPv4/IPv6  when  creating  the
          incoming  sockets  that  the  rsync  daemon will use to
          listen for connections.  One of these  options  may  be
          required  in  older versions of Linux to work around an
          IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see an  address  already
          in  use  error when nothing else is using the port, try
          specifying --ipv6 or --ipv4 when starting the daemon).

          If rsync was complied without  support  for  IPv6,  the
          --ipv6  option will have no effect.  The --version out-
          put will tell you if this is the case.

     -h, --help
          When specified after --daemon, print a short help  page
          describing  the options available for starting an rsync
          daemon.


FILTER RULES

     The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files
     to  transfer  (include)  and  which files to skip (exclude).
     The rules either directly specify  include/exclude  patterns
     or  they  specify a way to acquire more include/exclude pat-
     terns (e.g. to read them from a file).

     As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync
     checks  each  name  to  be  transferred  against the list of
     include/exclude patterns in turn,  and  the  first  matching
     pattern 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 pattern is found,
     then the filename is not skipped.

     Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on
     the command-line.  Filter rules have the following syntax:

          RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME]
          RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME]

     You have your choice of using  either  short  or  long  RULE
     names,  as  described below.  If you use a short-named rule,
     the , separating the RULE from the  MODIFIERS  is  optional.
     The  PATTERN  or  FILENAME  that follows (when present) must
     come after either a single space or an underscore (_).  Here
     are the available rule prefixes:

          exclude, - specifies an exclude pattern.
          include, + specifies an include pattern.

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          merge, . specifies a merge-file to read for more rules.
          dir-merge, : specifies a per-directory merge-file.
          hide, H specifies a pattern for hiding files  from  the
          transfer.
          show, S files that match the pattern are not hidden.
          protect, P specifies a  pattern  for  protecting  files
          from deletion.
          risk, R files that match the pattern are not protected.
          clear, ! clears the current include/exclude list (takes
          no arg)

     When rules are being read  from  a  file,  empty  lines  are
     ignored, as are comment lines that start with a #.

     Note that the --include/--exclude  command-line  options  do
     not  allow the full range of rule parsing as described above
     -- they only allow the specification of include/exclude pat-
     terns  plus a ! token to clear the list (and the normal com-
     ment parsing when rules are read from a file).  If a pattern
     does  not  begin  with -  (dash, space) or +  (plus, space),
     then the rule will be interpreted as if +  (for  an  include
     option)  or  -  (for an exclude option) were prefixed to the
     string.  A --filter option, on the other hand,  must  always
     contain either a short or long rule name at the start of the
     rule.

     Note  also  that  the  --filter,  --include,  and  --exclude
     options  take  one  rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones,
     you can repeat the options  on  the  command-line,  use  the
     merge-file   syntax   of   the   --filter   option,  or  the
     --include-from/--exclude-from options.


INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES

     You can include and exclude  files  by  specifying  patterns
     using  the  +,  -,  etc.  filter rules (as introduced in the
     FILTER RULES section above).  The include/exclude rules each
     specify  a  pattern that is matched against the names of the
     files that are going to be transferred.  These patterns  can
     take several forms:

     o    if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
          particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it
          is matched against the end of the  pathname.   This  is
          similar  to  a  leading ^ in regular expressions.  Thus
          /foo would match a name of foo at either  the  root  of
          the  transfer (for a global rule) or in the merge-files
          directory (for a per-directory rule).   An  unqualified
          foo  would  match  a  name  of foo anywhere in the tree
          because the algorithm is applied recursively  from  the
          top  down;  it behaves as if each path component gets a
          turn at being  the  end  of  the  filename.   Even  the

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          unanchored  sub/foo  would  match  at  any point in the
          hierarchy where a foo  was  found  within  a  directory
          named    sub.     See    the   section   on   ANCHORING
          INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for a full discussion  of  how
          to  specify  a  pattern that matches at the root of the
          transfer.

     o    if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match  a
          directory, not a regular file, symlink, or device.

     o    rsync chooses between doing a simple string  match  and
          wildcard  matching  by checking if the pattern contains
          one of these three wildcard characters: *, ?, and [ .

     o    a *  matches  any  path  component,  but  it  stops  at
          slashes.

     o    use ** to match anything, including slashes.

     o    a ? matches any character except a slash (/).

     o    a [ introduces a character  class,  such  as  [a-z]  or
          [[:alpha:]].

     o    in a wildcard pattern,  a  backslash  can  be  used  to
          escape   a   wildcard  character,  but  it  is  matched
          literally when no wildcards are  present.   This  means
          that  there is an extra level of backslash removal when
          a pattern contains wildcard characters  compared  to  a
          pattern  that  has none.  e.g. if you add a wildcard to
          foo\bar (which matches the backslash) you would need to
          use foo\\bar* to avoid the \b becoming just b.

     o    if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /)
          or  a **, then it is matched against the full pathname,
          including  any  leading  directories.  If  the  pattern
          doesnt  contain  a  /  or a **, then it is matched only
          against the final component of the filename.  (Remember
          that  the  algorithm  is  applied  recursively  so full
          filename can actually be any portion of a path from the
          starting directory on down.)

     o    a trailing dir_name/*** will match both  the  directory
          (as  if dir_name/ had been specified) and everything in
          the directory (as if dir_name/** had  been  specified).
          This behavior was added in version 2.6.7.

     Note that, when using the --recursive (-r) option (which  is
     implied  by -a), every subcomponent of every path is visited
     from the top down, so include/exclude patterns  get  applied
     recursively to each subcomponents full name (e.g. to include

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     /foo/bar/baz the subcomponents /foo and /foo/bar must not be
     excluded).   The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the
     directory traversal stage when  rsync  finds  the  files  to
     send.   If a pattern excludes a particular parent directory,
     it can render a deeper include pattern  ineffectual  because
     rsync  did  not descend through that excluded section of the
     hierarchy.  This is  particularly  important  when  using  a
     trailing * rule.  For instance, this wont work:

          + /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found
          + /file-is-included
          - *

     This fails because the parent directory some is excluded  by
     the  *  rule,  so rsync never visits any of the files in the
     some or some/path directories.  One solution is to  ask  for
     all  directories  in the hierarchy to be included by using a
     single rule: + */ (put it somewhere before the  -  *  rule),
     and  perhaps  use  the  --prune-empty-dirs  option.  Another
     solution is to add specific include rules for all the parent
     dirs  that  need  to  be visited.  For instance, this set of
     rules works fine:

          + /some/
          + /some/path/
          + /some/path/this-file-is-found
          + /file-also-included
          - *

     Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:

     o    - *.o would exclude all names matching *.o

     o    - /foo would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in
          the transfer-root directory

     o    - foo/ would exclude any directory named foo

     o    - /foo/*/bar would exclude any file named bar which  is
          at  two  levels  below  a  directory  named  foo in the
          transfer-root directory

     o    - /foo/**/bar would exclude any file named bar  two  or
          more   levels  below  a  directory  named  foo  in  the
          transfer-root directory

     o    The combination of + */, + *.c, and - *  would  include
          all  directories  and  C  source files but nothing else
          (see also the --prune-empty-dirs option)

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     o    The combination of + foo/, + foo/bar.c, and -  *  would
          include  only  the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo
          directory must be explicitly included or  it  would  be
          excluded by the *)

     The following modifiers are accepted after a + or -:

     o    A / specifies that the include/exclude rule  should  be
          matched  against  the  absolute pathname of the current
          item.  For example, -/ /etc/passwd  would  exclude  the
          passwd  file  any  time  the transfer was sending files
          from the /etc directory, and -/ subdir/foo would always
          exclude  foo  when it is in a dir named subdir, even if
          foo is at the root of the current transfer.

     o    A ! specifies  that  the  include/exclude  should  take
          effect if the pattern fails to match.  For instance, -!
          */ would exclude all non-directories.

     o    A C is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude
          rules  should  be  inserted as excludes in place of the
          -C.  No arg should follow.

     o    An s is used to indicate that the rule applies  to  the
          sending side.  When a rule affects the sending side, it
          prevents files from being transferred.  The default  is
          for    a    rule    to   affect   both   sides   unless
          --delete-excluded was specified, in which case  default
          rules  become  sender-side only.  See also the hide (H)
          and show (S) rules,  which  are  an  alternate  way  to
          specify sending-side includes/excludes.

     o    An r is used to indicate that the rule applies  to  the
          receiving  side.   When  a  rule  affects the receiving
          side, it prevents files from being deleted.  See the  s
          modifier  for  more info.  See also the protect (P) and
          risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way  to  specify
          receiver-side includes/excludes.

     o    A p indicates that a rule is perishable,  meaning  that
          it  is  ignored  in directories that are being deleted.
          For instance, the -C options default rules that exclude
          things  like  CVS and *.o are marked as perishable, and
          will not prevent a directory that was  removed  on  the
          source from being deleted on the destination.


MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES

     You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specify-
     ing  either  a  merge (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as
     introduced in the FILTER RULES section above).

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     There are two kinds of merged files --  single-instance  (.)
     and per-directory (:).  A single-instance merge file is read
     one time, and its rules are  incorporated  into  the  filter
     list  in  the  place of the . rule.  For per-directory merge
     files, rsync will scan every directory that it traverses for
     the  named  file,  merging its contents when the file exists
     into  the  current   list   of   inherited   rules.    These
     per-directory rule files must be created on the sending side
     because it is the sending side that is being scanned for the
     available files to transfer.  These rule files may also need
     to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them  to
     affect  what files dont get deleted (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES
     AND DELETE below).

     Some examples:

          merge /etc/rsync/default.rules
          dir-merge .per-dir-filter
          dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes
          :n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes

     The following  modifiers  are  accepted  after  a  merge  or
     dir-merge rule:

     o    A - specifies that the  file  should  consist  of  only
          exclude patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for
          in-file comments.

     o    A + specifies that the  file  should  consist  of  only
          include patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for
          in-file comments.

     o    A C is a way to specify that the file should be read in
          a  CVS-compatible  manner.   This turns on n, w, and -,
          but also allows  the  list-clearing  token  (!)  to  be
          specified.   If  no filename is provided, .cvsignore is
          assumed.

     o    A e will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer;
          e.g.  dir-merge,e .rules is like dir-merge .rules and -
          .rules.

     o    An n specifies that the rules are not inherited by sub-
          directories.

     o    A w specifies that the rules  are  word-split  on  whi-
          tespace  instead  of  the  normal line-splitting.  This
          also  turns  off  comments.   Note:  the   space   that
          separates  the  prefix  from  the  rule is treated spe-
          cially, so - foo + bar is parsed as two rules (assuming
          that prefix-parsing wasnt also disabled).

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     o    You may also specify any of the modifiers for the +  or
          -  rules  (above)  in  order to have the rules that are
          read in from the file default to having  that  modifier
          set (except for the ! modifier, which would not be use-
          ful).  For instance, merge,-/  .excl  would  treat  the
          contents  of  .excl  as  absolute-path  excludes, while
          dir-merge,s .filt and :sC would  each  make  all  their
          per-directory rules apply only on the sending side.  If
          the merge rule specifies sides to affect (via the s  or
          r  modifier  or  both), then the rules in the file must
          not specify sides (via a modifier or a rule prefix such
          as hide).

     Per-directory rules are inherited in all  subdirectories  of
     the  directory  where  the merge-file was found unless the n
     modifier was used.  Each subdirectorys rules are prefixed to
     the  inherited  per-directory  rules from its parents, which
     gives the newest rules a higher priority than the  inherited
     rules.   The  entire  set  of  dir-merge  rules  are grouped
     together in the spot where the merge-file was specified,  so
     it  is  possible to override dir-merge rules via a rule that
     got specified earlier in the list of global rules.  When the
     list-clearing rule (!) is read from a per-directory file, it
     only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.

     Another way to prevent a single rule from a  dir-merge  file
     from  being  inherited is to anchor it with a leading slash.
     Anchored rules in a per-directory merge-file are relative to
     the  merge-files  directory,  so  a  pattern /foo would only
     match the file foo in  the  directory  where  the  dir-merge
     filter file was found.

     Heres  an  example  filter  file  which  youd  specify   via
     --filter=. file:

          merge /home/user/.global-filter
          - *.gz
          dir-merge .rules
          + *.[ch]
          - *.o

     This     will     merge     the     contents     of      the
     /home/user/.global-filter  file at the start of the list and
     also turns the .rules filename into a  per-directory  filter
     file.  All rules read in prior to the start of the directory
     scan follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash
     matches at the root of the transfer).

     If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path  that
     is a parent directory of the first transfer directory, rsync

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     will scan all the parent dirs from that  starting  point  to
     the transfer directory for the indicated per-directory file.
     For instance, here is a common filter (see -F):

          --filter=': /.rsync-filter'

     That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter  in
     all directories from the root down through the parent direc-
     tory of the transfer prior to the start of the normal direc-
     tory  scan of the file in the directories that are sent as a
     part of the transfer.  (Note: for an rsync daemon, the  root
     is always the same as the modules path.)

     Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:

          rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir
          rsync -av --filter=':  ../../.rsync-filter'  /src/path/
          /dest/dir
          rsync   -av   --filter=':   .rsync-filter'   /src/path/
          /dest/dir

     The first two commands above will look for .rsync-filter  in
     /  and  /src  before  the normal scan begins looking for the
     file in /src/path and its subdirectories.  The last  command
     avoids   the   parent-dir   scan  and  only  looks  for  the
     .rsync-filter files in each directory that is a part of  the
     transfer.

     If you want to include the contents of a .cvsignore in  your
     patterns,  you  should  use  the  rule  :C,  which creates a
     dir-merge  of  the  .cvsignore  file,  but   parsed   in   a
     CVS-compatible manner.  You can use this to affect where the
     --cvs-exclude (-C) options inclusion  of  the  per-directory
     .cvsignore  file  gets placed into your rules by putting the
     :C wherever you like in your filter  rules.   Without  this,
     rsync  would  add the dir-merge rule for the .cvsignore file
     at the end of all your other rules (giving it a lower prior-
     ity than your command-line rules).  For example:

          cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b
          + foo.o
          :C
          - *.old
          EOT
          rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b

     Both of the above rsync commands are  identical.   Each  one
     will  merge  all  the  per-directory .cvsignore rules in the
     middle of the list rather than  at  the  end.   This  allows

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     their  dir-specific rules to supersede the rules that follow
     the :C instead of being subservient to all your  rules.   To
     affect the other CVS exclude rules (i.e. the default list of
     exclusions, the contents of $HOME/.cvsignore, and the  value
     of  $CVSIGNORE)  you  should omit the -C command-line option
     and instead insert a -C rule into your  filter  rules;  e.g.
     --filter=-C.


LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE

     You can clear the current include/exclude list by using  the
     !  filter  rule  (as  introduced in the FILTER RULES section
     above).  The current list is either the global list of rules
     (if  the  rule  is  encountered  while  parsing  the  filter
     options) or a set of per-directory rules (which  are  inher-
     ited  in  their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this
     to clear out the parents rules).


ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS

     As mentioned earlier, global  include/exclude  patterns  are
     anchored  at  the  root  of  the  transfer  (as  opposed  to
     per-directory  patterns,   which   are   anchored   at   the
     merge-files  directory).   If you think of the transfer as a
     subtree  of  names  that  are  being  sent  from  sender  to
     receiver,  the  transfer-root is where the tree starts to be
     duplicated in the destination directory.  This root  governs
     where patterns that start with a / match.

     Because the  matching  is  relative  to  the  transfer-root,
     changing  the  trailing  slash  on a source path or changing
     your use of the --relative option affects the path you  need
     to use in your matching (in addition to changing how much of
     the file tree is duplicated on the destination  host).   The
     following examples demonstrate this.

     Lets say that we want to match two source files, one with an
     absolute  path  of  /home/me/foo/bar, and one with a path of
     /home/you/bar/baz.  Here is how the various command  choices
     differ for a 2-source transfer:

          Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
          +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
          +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
          Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
          Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz

          Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
          +/- pattern: /foo/bar               (note missing me)
          +/- pattern: /bar/baz               (note missing you)
          Target file: /dest/foo/bar
          Target file: /dest/bar/baz

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          Example cmd: rsync -a  --relative  /home/me/  /home/you
          /dest
          +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar       (note full path)
          +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz      (ditto)
          Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
          Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz

          Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo  you/
          /dest
          +/-  pattern:  /me/foo/bar       (starts  at  specified
          path)
          +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz     (ditto)
          Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
          Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz

     The easiest way to see what name you  should  filter  is  to
     just  look at the output when using --verbose and put a / in
     front of the name (use the --dry-run option if youre not yet
     ready to copy any files).


PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE

     Without  a  delete  option,  per-directory  rules  are  only
     relevant  on  the  sending  side,  so  you  can feel free to
     exclude the merge files  themselves  without  affecting  the
     transfer.   To  make  this  easy,  the  e modifier adds this
     exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:

          rsync   -av    --filter=':    .excl'    --exclude=.excl
          host:src/dir /dest
          rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest

     However, if you want to do a delete on  the  receiving  side
     AND  you  want some files to be excluded from being deleted,
     youll need to be sure that the  receiving  side  knows  what
     files  to  exclude.   The  easiest  way  is  to  include the
     per-directory  merge  files  in   the   transfer   and   use
     --delete-after, because this ensures that the receiving side
     gets all the same exclude rules as the sending  side  before
     it tries to delete anything:

          rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest

     However, if the merge files are not a part of the  transfer,
     youll need to either specify some global exclude rules (i.e.
     specified on the command line), or youll  need  to  maintain
     your  own  per-directory  merge files on the receiving side.
     An example of the first is  this  (assume  that  the  remote
     .rules files exclude themselves):

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     rsync -av --filter=: .rules --filter=. /my/extra.rules
        --delete host:src/dir /dest

     In the above example the extra.rules file  can  affect  both
     sides  of  the transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules
     are subservient to the rules merged from  the  .rules  files
     because  they  were  specified after the per-directory merge
     rule.

     In one final example,  the  remote  side  is  excluding  the
     .rsync-filter  files  from  the transfer, but we want to use
     our own .rsync-filter files to control what gets deleted  on
     the receiving side.  To do this we must specifically exclude
     the  per-directory  merge  files  (so  that  they  dont  get
     deleted)  and then put rules into the local files to control
     what else should not get deleted.  Like one  of  these  com-
     mands:

         rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
             host:src/dir /dest
         rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest


BATCH MODE

     Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of  updates  to
     many  identical  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 des-
     tination  trees.   The  write-batch  option causes the rsync
     client to store in a batch file all the  information  needed
     to  repeat  this operation against other, identical destina-
     tion trees.

     Generating the batch file 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.

     To apply the recorded changes to another  destination  tree,
     run rsync with the read-batch option, specifying the name of
     the same  batch  file,  and  the  destination  tree.   Rsync
     updates the destination tree using the information stored in
     the batch file.

     For your convenience, a script file is also created when the
     write-batch  option  is  used:  it will be named the same as

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     the batch file with .sh appended.  This script file contains
     a  command-line  suitable  for  updating  a destination tree
     using the associated batch file. It can be executed using  a
     Bourne  (or  Bourne-like)  shell,  optionally  passing in an
     alternate destination  tree  pathname  which  is  then  used
     instead  of  the  original destination path.  This is useful
     when the destination tree path on the current  host  differs
     from the one used to create the batch file.

     Examples:

          $   rsync   --write-batch=foo   -a    host:/source/dir/
          /adest/dir/
          $ scp foo* remote:
          $ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/

          $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
          $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo

     In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/  from
     /source/dir/ and the information to repeat this operation is
     stored in foo and foo.sh.  The host remote is  then  updated
     with  the  batched data going into the directory /bdest/dir.
     The differences between the two examples reveals some of the
     flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:

     o    The first example shows that the  initial  copy  doesnt
          have to be local -- you can push or pull data to/from a
          remote host using either  the  remote-shell  syntax  or
          rsync daemon syntax, as desired.

     o    The first example uses the created foo.sh file  to  get
          the  right  rsync  options  when running the read-batch
          command on the remote host.

     o    The second example reads the batch  data  via  standard
          input  so  that the batch file doesnt need to be copied
          to the remote machine first.  This example  avoids  the
          foo.sh  script  because  it  needed  to  use a modified
          --read-batch option, but you could edit the script file
          if  you  wished to make use of it (just be sure that no
          other option is trying to use standard input,  such  as
          the --exclude-from=- option).

     Caveats:

     The read-batch option expects the destination tree  that  it
     is updating to be identical to the destination tree that was
     used to create the batch update fileset.  When a  difference

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     between  the  destination  trees  is  encountered the update
     might be discarded with a warning (if the file appears to be
     up-to-date  already) or the file-update may be attempted and
     then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with
     an  error.   This  means  that it should be safe to re-run a
     read-batch operation if the command got interrupted.  If you
     wish  to  force  the  batched-update  to always be attempted
     regardless of the files size and date,  use  the  -I  option
     (when  reading the batch).  If an error occurs, the destina-
     tion tree will probably be in a partially updated state.  In
     that case, rsync can be used in its regular (non-batch) mode
     of operation to fix up the destination tree.

     The rsync version used on all destinations must be at  least
     as  new  as  the one used to generate the batch file.  Rsync
     will die with an error if the protocol version in the  batch
     file  is too new for the batch-reading rsync to handle.  See
     also the --protocol option for a way to  have  the  creating
     rsync  generate  a batch file that an older rsync can under-
     stand.  (Note that batch files  changed  format  in  version
     2.6.3,  so  mixing  versions older than that with newer ver-
     sions will not work.)

     When reading a batch file, rsync will  force  the  value  of
     certain  options  to match the data in the batch file if you
     didnt set them to the same  as  the  batch-writing  command.
     Other  options  can  (and  should) be changed.  For instance
     --write-batch  changes  to  --read-batch,  --files-from   is
     dropped,  and  the  --filter/--include/--exclude options are
     not needed unless one of the --delete options is specified.

     The code that  creates  the  BATCH.sh  file  transforms  any
     filter/include/exclude  options  into  a single list that is
     appended as a here document to the shell  script  file.   An
     advanced  user  can use this to modify the exclude list if a
     change in what gets deleted by --delete is desired.  A  nor-
     mal  user  can  ignore  this  detail  and just use the shell
     script as an easy way to run  the  appropriate  --read-batch
     command for the batched data.

     The original batch mode in rsync was based  on  rsync+,  but
     the latest version uses a new implementation.


SYMBOLIC LINKS

     Three basic behaviors 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 sym-
     links that exist.

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     If --links is specified, then symlinks  are  recreated  with
     the  same  target  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 can also distinguish safe and unsafe  symbolic  links.
     An  example  where  this  might be used is a web site mirror
     that wishes to ensure that the rsync module that  is  copied
     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 des-
     tination.  Using --safe-links will cause unsafe links to  be
     omitted altogether.  (Note that you must specify --links for
     --safe-links to have any effect.)

     Symbolic links are considered unsafe if  they  are  absolute
     symlinks (start with /), empty, or if they contain enough ..
     components to ascend from the directory being copied.

     Heres a summary of how the symlink options are  interpreted.
     The  list  is in order of precedence, so if your combination
     of options isnt mentioned, use the first line that is a com-
     plete subset of your options:

     --copy-links
          Turn all symlinks into normal files  (leaving  no  sym-
          links for any other options to affect).

     --links --copy-unsafe-links
          Turn all unsafe symlinks into files and  duplicate  all
          safe symlinks.

     --copy-unsafe-links
          Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily  skip  all
          safe symlinks.

     --links --safe-links
          Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe ones.

     --links
          Duplicate all symlinks.


DIAGNOSTICS

     rsync occasionally produces error messages that may  seem  a
     little  cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confu-
     sion is protocol version 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

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     diagnose this problem is to run your remote shell like this:

          ssh 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 get-
     ting the above error from rsync then you will probably  find
     that  out.dat  contains  some text or data. Look at the con-
     tents 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  filter  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

     0    Success

     1    Syntax or usage error

     2    Protocol incompatibility

     3    Errors selecting input/output files, dirs

     4    Requested action not supported: an attempt was made  to
          manipulate  64-bit files on a platform that cannot sup-
          port them; or an option was specified that is supported
          by the client and not by the server.

     5    Error starting client-server protocol

     6    Daemon unable to append to log-file

     10   Error in socket I/O

     11   Error in file I/O

     12   Error in rsync protocol data stream

     13   Errors with program diagnostics

     14   Error in IPC code

     20   Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT

     21   Some error returned by waitpid()

     22   Error allocating core memory buffers

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     23   Partial transfer due to error

     24   Partial transfer due to vanished source files

     25   The --max-delete limit stopped deletions

     30   Timeout in data send/receive

     35   Timeout waiting for daemon connection


ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

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

     RSYNC_ICONV
          Specify a default --iconv setting using  this  environ-
          ment variable. (First supported in 3.0.0.)

     RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS
          Specify a  non-zero  numeric  value  if  you  want  the
          --protect-args  option  to  be enabled by default, or a
          zero value to make sure that it is disabled by default.
          (First supported in 3.1.0.)

     RSYNC_RSH
          The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to  over-
          ride the default shell used as the transport for rsync.
          Command line options are permitted  after  the  command
          name, just as in the -e option.

     RSYNC_PROXY
          The RSYNC_PROXY  environment  variable  allows  you  to
          redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when con-
          necting to a rsync daemon. 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 an rsync
          daemon without user intervention. Note that  this  does
          not  supply a password to a remote shell transport such
          as ssh; to learn how to do  that,  consult  the  remote
          shells documentation.

     USER or LOGNAME
          The USER or LOGNAME environment variables are  used  to
          determine the default username sent to an rsync daemon.
          If neither is set, the username defaults to nobody.

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     HOME The HOME environment variable is used to find the users
          default .cvsignore file.


FILES

     /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf


SEE ALSO

     rsyncd.conf(5)


BUGS

     times are transferred as *nix time_t values

     When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync unmo-
     dified  files.   See  the  comments  on  the --modify-window
     option.

     file permissions, devices, etc. are  transferred  as  native
     numerical values

     see also the comments on the --delete option

     Please    report    bugs!    See    the    web    site    at
     http://rsync.samba.org/


VERSION

     This man page is current for version 3.1.2 of rsync.


INTERNAL OPTIONS

     The options --server and --sender  are  used  internally  by
     rsync, and should never be typed by a user under normal cir-
     cumstances.  Some awareness of these options may  be  needed
     in  certain  scenarios, such as when setting up a login that
     can only run an rsync command.  For  instance,  the  support
     directory  of  the  rsync distribution has an example script
     named rrsync (for restricted rsync) that can be used with  a
     restricted ssh login.


CREDITS

     rsync is distributed under the GNU General  Public  License.
     See the file COPYING 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 pro-
     gram.      Please     contact     the     mailing-list    at
     rsync@lists.samba.org.

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


THANKS

     Special thanks go out to: John Van  Essen,  Matt  McCutchen,
     Wesley  W.  Terpstra,  David  Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian
     Krahmer, Martin Pool, and our gone-but-not-forgotten  compa-
     dre, J.W. Schultz.

     Thanks also to Richard Brent, Brendan  Mackay,  Bill  Waite,
     Stephen  Rothwell  and David Bell.  Ive probably missed some
     people, my apologies if I have.


AUTHOR

     rsync was originally written by  Andrew  Tridgell  and  Paul
     Mackerras.  Many people have later contributed to it.  It is
     currently maintained by Wayne Davison.

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

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