rsync

WHAT IS RSYNC?

Rsync is a fast and extraordinarily versatile file copying tool for both remote and local files.

Rsync uses a delta-transfer algorithm which provides a very fast method for bringing remote files into sync. It does this by sending just the differences in the files across the link, without requiring that both sets of files are present at one of the ends of the link beforehand. At first glance this may seem impossible because the calculation of diffs between two files normally requires local access to both files.

A technical report describing the rsync algorithm is included with this package.

USAGE

Basically you use rsync just like scp, but rsync has many additional options. To get a complete list of supported options type:

rsync --help

See the manpage for more detailed information.

SETUP

Rsync normally uses ssh or rsh for communication with remote systems. It does not need to be setuid and requires no special privileges for installation. You must, however, have a working ssh or rsh system. Using ssh is recommended for its security features.

Alternatively, rsync can run in `daemon' mode, listening on a socket. This is generally used for public file distribution, although authentication and access control are available.

To install rsync, first run the "configure" script. This will create a Makefile and config.h appropriate for your system. Then type "make".

Note that on some systems you will have to force configure not to use gcc because gcc may not support some features (such as 64 bit file offsets) that your system may support. Set the environment variable CC to the name of your native compiler before running configure in this case.

Once built put a copy of rsync in your search path on the local and remote systems (or use "make install"). That's it!

RSYNC DAEMONS

Rsync can also talk to "rsync daemons" which can provide anonymous or authenticated rsync. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for details on how to setup an rsync daemon. See the rsync(1) man page for info on how to connect to an rsync daemon.

WEB SITE

The main rsync web site is here:

http://rsync.samba.org/

You'll find a FAQ list, downloads, resources, HTML versions of the manpages, etc.

MAILING LISTS

There is a mailing list for the discussion of rsync and its applications that is open to anyone to join. New releases are announced on this list, and there is also an announcement-only mailing list for those that want official announcements. See the mailing-list page for full details:

http://rsync.samba.org/lists.html

BUG REPORTS

To visit this web page for full the details on bug reporting:

http://rsync.samba.org/bugzilla.html

That page contains links to the current bug list, and information on how to report a bug well. You might also like to try searching the Internet for the error message you've received, or looking in the mailing list archives at:

http://mail-archive.com/rsync@lists.samba.org/

To send a bug report, follow the instructions on the bug-tracking page of the web site.

Alternately, email your bug report to rsync@lists.samba.org.

GIT REPOSITORY

If you want to get the very latest version of rsync direct from the source code repository, then you will need to use git. The git repo is hosted on github and on samba's site. Feel free to access it here:

https://github.com/WayneD/rsync

or clone it from its samba repo:

git clone git://git.samba.org/rsync.git

See the download page for full details on all the ways to grab the source:

http://rsync.samba.org/download.html

COPYRIGHT

Rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and is currently maintained by Wayne Davison. It has been improved by many developers from around the world.

Rsync may be used, modified and redistributed only under the terms of the GNU General Public License, found in the file COPYING in this distribution, or at:

http://www.fsf.org/licenses/gpl.html

AVAILABILITY

The main web site for rsync is http://rsync.samba.org/

The main ftp site is ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync/

This is also available as rsync://download.samba.org/rsyncftp/ if you connect via ssl. Use the rsync-ssl script if you have it, otherwise connect to the rsync server via a normal rsync command and it will output some instructions for how to connect.