Introduction
Rsync, which stands for remote sync, is a file synchronization tool remotely and locally. It uses an algorithm that minimizes the amount of data that is copied by simply moving the portions of files that have changed.
History Of Rsync
Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras wrote the original rsync, which was first announced on 19 June 1996. Tridgell discusses the design, implementation and performance of rsync in chapters 3 through 5 of his Ph.D. thesis in 1999. It is currently maintained by Wayne Davison.
What Is Rsync?
Rsync is a very flexible network-enabled synchronization tool. It can also refer to a network protocol that was developed to utilize this tool.
Rsync is a widely-used utility to keep copies of a file on two computer systems the same. It is commonly found on Unix-like systems and functions as both a file synchronization and file transfer program. The rsync algorithm, a type of delta encoding, is used to minimize network usage. Zlib may be used for additional compression, and SSH or stunnel can be used for data security.
Due to its ubiquity on Linux and Unix-like systems and its popularity as a tool for system scripts, it is included on most Linux distributions by default.
Rsync Examples
In this guide, we will cover the basic usage of this powerful utility. We will be using an CentOS 6 VPS in the examples, but you can use any modern Linux distribution to follow along.
How To Use Rsync
Rsync basic syntax is very straight forward, and operates in a manner similar with ssh, scp, and cp.
We will create two directories test and some of the test file with the following command:
cd ~
mkdir test1
mkdir test2
touch test2/file{1..100}We now have a directory called test1 with 100 empty file in it.
ls test1and the output will look like this
file1 file15 file21 file28 file34 file40 file47 file53 file6 file66 file72 file79 file85 file91 file98
file10 file16 file22 file29 file35 file41 file48 file54 file60 file67 file73 file8 file86 file92 file99
file100 file17 file23 file3 file36 file42 file49 file55 file61 file68 file74 file80 file87 file93
file11 file18 file24 file30 file37 file43 file5 file56 file62 file69 file75 file81 file88 file94
file12 file19 file25 file31 file38 file44 file50 file57 file63 file7 file76 file82 file89 file95
file13 file2 file26 file32 file39 file45 file51 file58 file64 file70 file77 file83 file9 file96
file14 file20 file27 file33 file4 file46 file52 file59 file65 file71 file78 file84 file90 file97We also have an empty directory called test2. To align the contents of test1 to test2 on the same system, type:
rsync -avz test1/ test2The meaning of option:
-a = option is a combination flag
-v = increase verbosity
-z = reduce the network transfer by adding compression
-e = specify the remote shell to use
How To Use Rsync to Sync with a Remote and Local system
from local to remote system
# rsync -avz -e 'ssh -p sshport' folder/file nameuser@ipORhostname:/destinationfolderexamples:
# rsync -avz -e 'ssh -p 22' devel/*tgz root@192.168.1.11:/home/servermox This command will transfer all files in the folder devel to /home/servermox to remote system
from remote to local system
# rysnc -avz -e 'ssh -p sshport' nameuser@ipORhostname:/originfolderORfile /destinationfolderexamples:
# rysnc -avz -e 'ssh -p 22' root@192.168.1.21:/home/servermox/* /homeThis command will transfer all files in the folder /home/servermox/ from remote system to /home folder at local system
wish you luck!
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