> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://snubmonkey.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Rsync Command in Linux. - URL: https://snubmonkey.com/rsync-command-in-linux/ - Published: 2022-01-21T05:36:00.000Z - Updated: 2025-04-16T22:35:25.000Z - Description: Backup and recovery describe the process of creating and storing copies of data that can be used to protect organizations against data loss. Restoring from a backup typically means putting the data back in its original or another location, ready to replace any lost or corrupted data. - Author: Gabriella Bennett - Tags: linux 🐧, SSH 🕳, terminal Primary data failures can be the result of hardware or software failure, data corruption, or a human-caused event, such as a malicious attack (virus or malware), or accidental deletion of data. Manually syncing folders or copying files from one location to another can be incredibly time-consuming to do. That's where `rsync` comes in super, hyper handy. `Rsync` is a fast and extraordinarily versatile files and folders synchronizing tool. It can copy locally, to/from another host over any remote shell, or to/from a remote Rsync daemon. 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. After that first sync, `rsync` will only move the changes, keeping the mirror identical to the primary server and minimizing network traffic. Scared of losing connection during transfer ***–*** this tool will start exactly where it left off, once the connection is re-established. ### Installing Rsync Most Linux distributions and macOS come with the `rsync` tool pre-installed. If you don't already have `rsync` on your machine, you can easily install it using your distribution's package manager. ``` $ sudo apt install rsync ``` ### `Rsync` Command Syntax and Common Options The `rsync` utility expressions are as follows: ``` 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] ``` where: - `OPTION` \- The rsync options. - `SRC` \- Source directory. - `DEST` \- Destination directory. - `USER` \- Remote username. - `HOST` \- Remote hostname or IP Address. `rsync` has a ton of options that control how the command behaves. The following are the most commonly used options: - `-a`, `--archive`, archive mode, equivalent to combining `-rlptgoD`. This option tells `rsync` to syncs directories recursively, transfer special and block devices, preserve symbolic links, modification times, groups, ownership, and permissions. - `-r`, `--recursive` recurses into directories - `-R`, `--relative` preserves the full path, it creates subdirectories in the target location. - `-v`, `--verbose` increases verbosity. - `-z`, `--compress` option forces `rsync` to compress the data as it is sent to the destination machine. Use this option only if the connection to the remote machine is slow. - `-P`, is 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`, 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`, option allows you to choose a different remote shell. By default, `rsync` is configured to use `ssh`. - `-h`, `--human-readable` outputs numbers in a human-readable format. ### Copy/Sync Files and Directory Locally The following command will sync files and directories on a local machine from one location to another location. The user running the command must have read permissions on the source location and write permissions on the destination. ``` $ sudo rsync -avh /var/log/ ~/Desktop/log-backups/ password for snubmonkey: sending incremental file list created directory /home/snubmonkey/Desktop/log-backups log/ log/auth.log log/btmp log/btmp.1 log/kern.log log/syslog ... ... sent 17.18M bytes received 2.80K bytes 3.82M bytes/sec total size is 17.17M speedup is 1.00 ``` Omitting the filename from the destination location copies the file with the later current name. If you want to save the file under a different name, you need to specify the new name on the destination part. Here we specifically chose `log-backups`. To cut it short, if the destination directory doesn’t exist, `rsync` will create it. ### Trailing slash (/) It's worth mentioning that `rsync` treats source folders with a trailing slash (**/**) differently. If the **source directory** **contains** a trailing slash, the command will **only transfer the contents** of that directory to the destination directory; if **not**, `rsync` transfers the **source** **directory** to the destination directory. Here are some examples: **with** a trailing slash (/) ``` $ rsync -avgrtHP ~/Desktop/Out/ ~/Desktop/public OUPUT $ ls Out ``` **without** a trailing slash (/) ``` $ rsync -avgrtHP ~/Desktop/Out ~/Desktop/private OUPUT $ ls TopG leo_caillard_hipster_in_stone-19.jpg leo_caillard_hipster_in_stone-3.jpg Popsicle-gif.gif Prints 'Screenshot-2017-12-2 Kiss Mix.png' 'Screenshot-2017-12-2 Mojito - Kiss Mix.png' ``` ### Copy\\Sync Files and Directory from a Local to a Remote Server In other to use `rsync` to synchronize data remotely, it must be installed on both the source and the destination machine. `rsync` is configured to use `SSH` as the default remote shell. In the following example, we are transferring a directory from a local to a remote server: ``` $ rsync -avgtrHP /Users/probe/www/snubmonkey-Blog/ luna@192.168.1.123:/Users/luna/Backups/Blog-backupX/ Password: building file list ... 172 files to consider created directory /Users/luna/Backups/Blog-backupX ``` ### Copy\\Sync Files and Directory from a Remote to a Local Server To transfer data from a remote to a local machine, use the remote location as a source: ``` $ rsync -avgtrHP luna@192.168.1.123:/Users/luna/Backups/Blog-backupX/ ~/desktop/desktop-backups/ Password: receiving file list ... 642 files to consider created directory /Users/probe/desktop/desktop-backups ``` Notice the `-avgtrHP` options, they will tell you a lot. ## Rsync over SSH With all that said, Rsync communication is plain clear text by default. This makes R**sync** vulnerable to the Man-in-the-middle attacks (**MITM**). It doesn’t natively provide encryption of any of the data transferred over. The usual and smart workaround is to use the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol to **tunnel** `Rsync` communication. `-e` option specify the remote shell to use; here `SSH`. ``` $ rsync -avgtrHP -e ssh ~/desktop/expenses/ moon@192.168.1.112:~/Desktop/ moon@192.168.1.112's password: building file list ... 202 files to consider ``` ## Rsync with Non-standard SSH Port `Rsync` uses the default port **22** over `SSH` to communicate with the remote host. Most Linux system users set the default `SSH` port to a non-standard port for security reasons. In such a case, you **must** specify a `SSH` port to connect `rsync` command on a non-standard port. If `SSH` on the remote host is listening on a port other than the default **22**, specify the port using the `-e` option to. ### Local to a Remote Server with a Non-standard SSH Port ``` $ rsync -avgtrHP -e "ssh -p 6656" ~/desktop/desktop-backups/ venera@192.168.1.212:~/Desktop/ venera@192.168.1.212's password: building file list ... 619 files to consider ``` ### Remote to a Local Server with a Non-standard SSH Port ``` $ rsync -avgtrHP -e "ssh -p 6656" venera@192.168.1.212:~/desktop/ ~/desktop/desktop-backups/ venera@192.168.1.212's password: building file list ... 619 files to consider ``` ### Use of `–-include` and `--exclude` Options These options allow us to define which files or directories we want to include in our synchronization and which we do not. In the following example, we will **include** files and directories only if they begin with the capitalized letter '**P**' and **exclude** everything else. Let's `ls` in our current directory on our local end: ``` $ ls Popsicle-gif.gif Prints Screenshot-2017-12-2 Kiss Mix.png Screenshot-2017-12-2 Mojito - Kiss Mix.png Screenshot-2017-12-2 Our Story- Kiss Mix(1).png Screenshot-2017-12-2 Our Story- Kiss Mix(2).png Screenshot-2017-12-2 Our Story- Kiss Mix.png instG leo_caillard_hipster_in_stone-19.jpg leo_caillard_hipster_in_stone-3.jpg TopG ``` Let's use `–include` and `–exclude` options: ``` rsync -avgrtHP -e "ssh -p 6656" --include 'P*' --exclude '*' ~/desktop/Out/ venera@192.168.1.212:~/desktop/include venera@192.168.1.212's password: ``` Now, let's check on the remote side: ``` $ cd ~/desktop/include $ls Popsicle-gif.gif Prints ``` ### `--max-size` Option We can also specify the maximum file size to be synced. Here, we will synchronize only those files which are equal to or smaller than **300k**. ``` rsync -avgrtHP -e "ssh -p 6656" --max-size '300k' ~/desktop/Out/ venera@192.168.1.212:~/desktop/max300k venera@192.168.1.212's password: ``` ### Remove source files after transfer `--remove-source-files` option lets you remove the files from the source after the sync. is done. ``` rsync -avgrtHP -e "ssh -p 6656" --remvoe-source-files ~/desktop/mp3/venera@192.168.1.212:~/desktop/music venera@192.168.1.212's password: ``` After executing the above command, everything inside the **mp3** directory will be removed after successful transfer. As we've seen, **rsync** could be a great replacement for `scp` , `sftp` , and `cp` commands. For best results, backup copies are made on a consistent, regular basis to minimize the amount of data lost between backups. The more time passes between backup copies, the more potential for data loss when recovering from a backup. That’s all with **rsync** now,stay connected with **Snubmonkey** for more exciting and interesting future posts.