Rsync Command Examples
Rsync is a powerful and versatile file-synchronization tool commonly used for backups and mirroring data between systems. It efficiently transfers only the differences between files, making it much faster than traditional copy commands for large datasets or over slow networks. This page provides practical examples of common rsync commands.
Basic File Synchronization
These examples demonstrate fundamental rsync usage for copying files and directories.
# To copy files from remote to local, maintaining file properties and sym-links
# (-a), zipping for faster transfer (-z), verbose (-v):
rsync -avz host:file1 :file1 /dest/
rsync -avz /source host:/destAdvanced Rsync Options
Explore more advanced options to control how rsync behaves, such as using checksums or preserving directory structures.
# To copy files using checksum (-c) rather than time to detect if the file has
# changed. (Useful for validating backups):
rsync -avc <src> <dest>
# To copy /src/foo folder into destination:
# This command will create /dest/foo if it does not already exist
rsync -auv /src/foo /dest
# To copy contents of /src/foo into destination:
# This command will not create /foo_bak/foo folder
rsync -auv /src/foo/ /foo_bakRsync over SSH
Learn how to securely transfer files using rsync over SSH, including specifying ports and authentication keys.
# To copy file from local to remote over ssh with non standard port 1234 to
# destination folder in remoteuser's home directory:
rsync -avz -e "ssh -p1234" <source> <username>@<host>:<dest>
# Use the specified authentication key, instead of typing a password:
# (The key can be generated by ssh-keygen, and the public key should be placed
# in remote's authorized_keys, e.g. using ssh-copy-id)
rsync -avz -e "ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa" <src> <dest>Privileged File Access and Symlink Handling
Discover how to handle privileged files and manage symbolic links with rsync.
# Log into remote as a user, but promote to root, to access privileged files:
rsync -avz --rsync-path="sudo rsync" user@<src> <dest>
# Rsync only symlinks and preserve them as symlinks (dont follow them):
find /path/to/files -type l -print | \
rsync -av --files-from=- /path/to/files user@targethost:/dest_path