11/9/24, 12:54 PM Rsync Command in Linux with Examples | Linuxize

Rsync Command in Linux with Examples

Updated on Jul 20, 2020 • 5 min read

rsync is a fast and versatile command-line utility for synchronizing files and
directories between two locations over a remote shell, or from/to a remote Rsync
daemon. It provides fast incremental file transfer by transferring only the differences
between the source and the destination.

Rsync can be used for mirroring data, incremental backups, copying files between
systems, and as a replacement for scp , sftp , and cp commands.

This article explains how to use rsync through practical examples and detailed
explanations of the most common rsync options.

Installing Rsync
The rsync utility is pre-installed on most Linux distributions and macOS. If you
don’t have rsync installed on your system, you can easily install it using your
distribution’s package manager.

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Install Rsync on Ubuntu and Debian

$ sudo apt install rsync

Install Rsync on CentOS and Fedora

$ sudo yum install rsync

Rsync Command Syntax

Before going into how to use the rsync command, let’s start by reviewing the basic
syntax.

The rsync utility expressions take the following form:

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

Local to Remote: rsync [OPTION]... [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
Remote to Local: rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC... [DEST]

OPTION - The rsync options .

SRC - Source directory.

DEST - Destination directory.

USER - Remote username.

HOST - Remote hostname or IP Address.

rsync provides a number of options that control how the command behaves. The
most widely used options are:

-a , --archive , archive mode, equivalent to -rlptgoD . This option tells rsync to

syncs directories recursively, transfer special and block devices, preserve symbolic
links, modification times, groups, ownership, and permissions.
-z , --compress . This option forces rsync to compresses the data as it is sent to
the destination machine. Use this option only if the connection to the remote
machine is slow.

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-P , equivalent to --partial --progress . When this option is used, rsync

shows a progress bar during the transfer and keeps the partially transferred files.
It is useful when transferring large files over slow or unstable network
connections.

--delete . When this option is used, rsync deletes extraneous files from the
destination location. It is useful for mirroring.

-q , --quiet . Use this option if you want to suppress non-error messages.

-e . This option allows you to choose a different remote shell. By default, rsync
is configured to use ssh.

Basic Rsync Usage

The most basic use case of rsync is to copy a single file from one to another local
location. Here is an example:

$ rsync -a /opt/filename.zip /tmp/

The user running the command must have read permissions on the source location
and write permissions on the destination.

Omitting the filename from the destination location copies the file with the current
name. If you want to save the file under a different name, specify the new name on
the destination part:

$ rsync -a /opt/filename.zip /tmp/newfilename.zip

The real power of rsync comes when synchronizing directories. The example below
shows how to create a local backup of website files:

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$ rsync -a /var/www/domain.com/public_html/ /var/www/domain.com/public_html

If the destination directory doesn’t exist, rsync will create it.

It is worth mentioning that rsync gives different treatment to the source directories
with a trailing slash ( / ). If the source directory has a trailing slash, the command will
copy only the directory contents to the destination directory. When the trailing slash
is omitted, rsync copies the source directory inside the destination directory.

Using rsync to Sync Data from/to a remote Machine

When using rsync to transfer data remotely , it must be installed on both the
source and the destination machine. The new versions of rsync are configured to
use SSH as default remote shell.

In the following example, we are transferring a directory from a local to a remote

machine:

$ rsync -a /opt/media/ remote_user@remote_host_or_ip:/opt/media/

If you haven’t set a passwordless SSH login to the remote machine, you will
be asked to enter the user password.

To transfer data from a remote to a local machine, use the remote location as a
source:

$ rsync -a remote_user@remote_host_or_ip:/opt/media/ /opt/media/

If SSH on the remote host is listening on a port other than the default 22 , specify
the port using the -e option:

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$ rsync -a -e "ssh -p 2322" /opt/media/ remote_user@remote_host_or_ip:/opt/

When transferring large amounts of data it is recommended to run the rsync

command inside a screen session or to use the -P option:

$ rsync -a -P remote_user@remote_host_or_ip:/opt/media/ /opt/media/

Exclude Files and Directories

There are two options to exclude files and directories. The first option is to use the -
-exclude argument and specify the files and directories you want to exclude on the
command line.

When excluding files or directories , you need to use their relative paths to the
source location.

In the following example shows how exclude the node_modules and tmp directories:

$ rsync -a --exclude=node_modules --exclude=tmp /src_directory/ /dst_direct

The second option is to use the --exclude-from option and specify the files and
directories you want to exclude in a file.

$ rsync -a --exclude-from='/exclude-file.txt' /src_directory/ /dst_director

/exclude-file.txt

node_modules
tmp

Conclusion
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We have shown you how to use Rsync to copy and synchronize files and directories.
There’s lots more to learn about Rsync at Rsync User’s Manual page.

Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions.

rsync terminal

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NOV 14, 2020

How to Copy Files and Directories in Linux

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