4 rsync is a replacement for rcp that has many more features.
6 rsync uses the "rsync algorithm" which provides a very fast method for
7 bringing remote files into sync. It does this by sending just the
8 differences in the files across the link, without requiring that both
9 sets of files are present at one of the ends of the link beforehand.
10 At first glance this may seem impossible because the calculation of
11 diffs between two files normally requires local access to both
14 A technical report describing the rsync algorithm is included with
21 Basically you use rsync just like rcp, but rsync has many additional
22 options. To get a complete list of supported options type
26 and see the manual for more information.
32 Rsync normally uses rsh or ssh for communication. It does not need to
33 be setuid and requires no special privileges for installation. You
34 must, however, have a working rsh or ssh system. Using ssh is
35 recommended for its security features.
37 Alternatively, rsync can run in `daemon' mode, listening on a socket.
38 This is generally used for public file distribution, although
39 authentication and access control are available.
41 To install rsync, first run the "configure" script. This will create a
42 Makefile and config.h appropriate for your system. Then type
45 Note that on some systems you will have to force configure not to use
46 gcc because gcc may not support some features (such as 64 bit file
47 offsets) that your system may support. Set the environment variable CC
48 to the name of your native compiler before running configure in this
51 Once built put a copy of rsync in your search path on the local and
52 remote systems (or use "make install"). That's it!
57 rsync can also talk to "rsync servers" which can provide anonymous or
58 authenticated rsync. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for details on how
59 to setup a rsync server. See the rsync(1) man page for info on how to
60 connect to a rsync server.
66 There is a mailing list for the discussion of rsync and its
67 applications. It is open to anyone to join. I will announce new
68 versions on this list.
70 To join the mailing list see the web page at http://lists.samba.org/
72 To send mail to everyone on the list send it to rsync@samba.org
78 If you have web access then please look at
80 http://rsync.samba.org
82 That page contains links to the current bug list, and information on
83 how to report a bug well. You might also like to try searching the
84 internet for the error message you've received, or looking in the
85 mailing list archives at
87 http://mail-archive.com/rsync@lists.samba.org/
89 Please send bug reports to
97 If you want to get the very latest version of rsync direct from the
98 source code repository then you can use anonymous cvs. You will need a
99 recent version of cvs then use the following commands:
101 cvs -d :pserver:cvs@pserver.samba.org:/cvsroot login
104 cvs -d :pserver:cvs@pserver.samba.org:/cvsroot co rsync
106 Look at the cvs documentation, or http://samba.org/cvs.html, for more
113 rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and has been improved
114 by many developers around the world. rsync may be used, modified and
115 redistributed only under the terms of the GNU General Public License,
116 found in the file COPYING in this distribution, or at
118 http://www.fsf.org/licenses/gpl.html
124 The main web site for rsync is http://rsync.samba.org/
125 The main ftp site is ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync/
126 This is also available as rsync://rsync.samba.org/rsyncftp/