rsync

Additional Notes

rsync efficiently copies and synchronizes files locally or to remote systems over SSH. It transfers only the differences between source and destination, making it faster than scp for repeated transfers or large directory trees.

It is commonly used for backups, mirroring, deployment, and large file transfers.

Syntax

rsync [options] source destination
rsync [options] source/ user@host:/remote/path/
rsync [options] user@host:/remote/path/ local/path/

Parameters

• source: Source file or directory to copy.
• destination: Target file or directory.
• user: Remote username for SSH transfers.
• host: Remote hostname or IP address.

Common Options

• -a, --archive: Archive mode. Preserves permissions, timestamps, owner, group, and copies recursively.
• -v, --verbose: Show detailed transfer information.
• -z, --compress: Compress data during transfer.
• -r, --recursive: Copy directories recursively.
• -e, --rsh: Specify remote shell (e.g., -e ssh).
• --delete: Delete destination files that are missing from the source.
• --dry-run, -n: Preview changes without transferring.
• --progress: Show transfer progress.
• --exclude PATTERN: Exclude files matching a pattern.
• -u, --update: Skip files that are newer on the destination.
• -P: Equivalent to --partial --progress.

Examples

rsync -av ./site/ /var/www/site/

Synchronize a local directory.

rsync -avz ./backup/ user@example.com:/backups/

Sync to a remote host with compression.

rsync -av --dry-run --delete ./site/ /var/www/site/

Preview a sync that removes extra files.

rsync -av --exclude='*.tmp' ./src/ ./dest/

Copy excluding temp files.

rsync -avz -e "ssh -p 2222" ./ user@example.com:/dest/

Use a custom SSH port.

Practical Notes

• A trailing slash on the source changes what is copied. src/ copies the contents, while src copies the directory itself.
• Use --dry-run first to verify what will change.
• rsync over SSH uses the same authentication as ssh.