rsync Command Examples

Transfer files either to or from a remote host (but not between two remote hosts), by default using SSH. To specify a remote path, use user@host:path/to/file_or_directory. More information: https://download.samba.org/pub/rsync/rsync.1.

• Transfer a file:

rsync {{path/to/source}} {{path/to/destination}}

• Use archive mode (recursively copy directories, copy symlinks without resolving, and preserve permissions, ownership and modification times):

rsync {{[-a|--archive]}} {{path/to/source}} {{path/to/destination}}

• Compress the data as it is sent to the destination, display verbose and human-readable progress, and keep partially transferred files if interrupted:

rsync {{[-zvhP|--compress --verbose --human-readable --partial --progress]}} {{path/to/source}} {{path/to/destination}}

• Recursively copy directories:

rsync {{[-r|--recursive]}} {{path/to/source}} {{path/to/destination}}

• Transfer directory contents, but not the directory itself:

rsync {{[-r|--recursive]}} {{path/to/source/}} {{path/to/destination}}

• Use archive mode, resolve symlinks, and skip files that are newer on the destination:

rsync {{[-auL|--archive --update --copy-links]}} {{path/to/source}} {{path/to/destination}}

• Transfer a directory from a remote host running rsyncd and delete files on the destination that do not exist on the source:

rsync {{[-r|--recursive]}} --delete rsync://{{host}}:{{path/to/source}} {{path/to/destination}}

• Transfer a file over SSH using a different port than the default (22) and show global progress:

rsync {{[-e|--rsh]}} 'ssh -p {{port}}' --info=progress2 {{host}}:{{path/to/source}} {{path/to/destination}}