How to Use Rsync Command in Linux: 16

Practical Examples
Rsync (Remote Sync) is the most commonly used command for copying and synchronizing files
and directories remotely as well as locally in Linux/Unix systems.

With the help of the rsync command, you can copy and synchronize your data remotely and
locally across directories, disks, and networks, perform data backups, and mirror between two
Linux machines.

This article explains 16 basic and advanced uses of the rsync command to transfer your files
remotely and locally in Linux-based machines. You don’t need to be a root user to run the
rsync command.

Table of Contents

 Advantages of Rsync Command

 Rsync Command Syntax
 Install Rsync in Linux System

o 1. Copy/Sync File Locally

o 2. Copy/Sync Directory Locally

o 3. Copy a Directory from Local to Remote Server
o 4. Copy a Directory from Remote to Local Server
o 5. Rsync Over SSH
o 6. Copy a File from a Remote Server to a Local Server with SSH
o 7. Copy a File from a Local Server to a Remote Server with SSH
o 8. Show Progress While Transferring Data with Rsync
o 9. Include Files with Particular Extension with Rsync
o 10. Exclude Files with Particular Extension with Rsync
o 11. Include and Exclude Files with Rsync
o 12. Use of –delete Option with Rsync
o 13. Set File Transfer Limit with Rsync
o 14. Automatically Delete Source Files After Transfer
o 15. Do a Dry Run with Rsync
o 16. Rsync Set Bandwidth Limit and Transfer File


 Conclusion
Advantages of Rsync Command
It offers several advantages, including:

 Efficient File Transfer – rsync uses a delta transfer algorithm, which

means it only transfers the differences between source and destination
files, which significantly reduces the amount of data transferred,
making it efficient for syncing large files or directories.
 Remote File Synchronization – rsync supports both local and
remote file transfers over SSH, which allows synchronization between
local and remote systems or mirroring directories across multiple
machines.
 Incremental Backups – rsync is well-suited for incremental backups,
as it create and update backups efficiently by transferring only new or
modified files.
 Preserves File Permissions – rsync can preserve various file
attributes, such as permissions, ownership, timestamps, and symbolic
links, which ensures that the copied files retain their original
characteristics on the destination.
 Bandwidth Control – rsync allows you to limit the bandwidth usage
during file transfers, as it uses compression and decompression
method while sending and receiving data on both ends.
 Faster – rsync can be faster than scp (Secure Copy) for transferring
files, especially when syncing large directories or when dealing with
files that have already been partially transferred or exist on the
destination.

Rsync Command Syntax

The rsync command follows the following syntax:

# rsync [OPTIONS] SOURCE DESTINATION

Here’s an explanation of the different components and options used with rsync commands:

 -v – Verbose output, displaying detailed information about the transfer.

 -r – copies data recursively (but doesn’t preserve timestamps and
permission while transferring data.
 -a – archive mode, which allows copying files recursively and it also
preserves symbolic links, file permissions, user & group ownerships,
and timestamps.
 -z – Compress files during transfer to reduce network usage.
 -h – human-readable, output numbers in a human-readable format.
 -P – Show progress during the transfer.
  SOURCE – Specifies the source file(s) or directory to be transferred, which
can be a local or a remote location.
 DESTINATION – Specifies the destination path where the files or
directories will be copied. Similar to the source, it can be a local path or
a remote location.

[ You might also like: How to Sync Files/Directories Using Rsync with
Non-standard SSH Port ]

Install Rsync in Linux System

We can install the rsync package with the help of the following package manager as per your
Linux distribution.

$ sudo apt install rsync [On Debian, Ubuntu and Mint]

$ sudo yum install rsync [On RHEL/CentOS/Fedora and Rocky/AlmaLinux]
$ sudo emerge -a sys-apps/rsync [On Gentoo Linux]
$ sudo apk add rsync [On Alpine Linux]
$ sudo pacman -S rsync [On Arch Linux]
$ sudo zypper install rsync [On OpenSUSE]

1. Copy/Sync File Locally

To copy or sync a file locally, you can use the following command that will sync a single file on
a local machine from one location to another location.

Here in this example, a file name [Link] needs to be copied or synced to /tmp/backups/
folder.

[root@tecmint]# rsync -zvh [Link] /tmp/backups/

created directory /tmp/backups

[Link]

sent 224.54K bytes received 70 bytes 449.21K bytes/sec

total size is 224.40K speedup is 1.00

In the above example, you can see that if the destination is not already existed rsync will create a
directory automatically for the destination.
Rsync Local Files

2. Copy/Sync Directory Locally

The following command will transfer or sync all the files from one directory to a different
directory in the same machine.

Here in this example, /root/rpmpkgs contains some rpm package files and you want that
directory to be copied inside /tmp/backups/ folder.

[root@tecmint]# rsync -avzh /root/rpmpkgs /tmp/backups/

sending incremental file list

rpmpkgs/
rpmpkgs/httpd-2.4.37-40.module_el8.5.0+852+0aafc63b.x86_64.rpm
rpmpkgs/mod_ssl-2.4.37-40.module_el8.5.0+852+0aafc63b.x86_64.rpm
rpmpkgs/nagios-4.4.6-4.el8.x86_64.rpm
rpmpkgs/nagios-plugins-2.3.3-5.el8.x86_64.rpm

sent 3.47M bytes received 96 bytes 2.32M bytes/sec

total size is 3.74M speedup is 1.08

Rsync Local Directory

3. Copy a Directory from Local to Remote Server

To copy a directory from a local server to a remote server, you can use the following command,
which will sync a directory from a local to a remote machine.
For example, if there is a folder in your local computer “rpmpkgs” that contains some RPM
packages and if you want that local directory’s content sends to a remote server, you can use the
following command.

# rsync -avzh /root/rpmpkgs root@[Link]:/root/

The authenticity of host '[Link] ([Link])' can't be established.

ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:bH2tiWQn4S5o6qmZhmtXcBROV5TU5H4t2C42QDEMx1c.
This key is not known by any other names
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
Warning: Permanently added '[Link]' (ED25519) to the list of known
hosts.
root@[Link]'s password:
sending incremental file list
rpmpkgs/
rpmpkgs/httpd-2.4.37-40.module_el8.5.0+852+0aafc63b.x86_64.rpm
rpmpkgs/mod_ssl-2.4.37-40.module_el8.5.0+852+0aafc63b.x86_64.rpm
rpmpkgs/nagios-4.4.6-4.el8.x86_64.rpm
rpmpkgs/nagios-plugins-2.3.3-5.el8.x86_64.rpm

sent 3.74M bytes received 96 bytes 439.88K bytes/sec

total size is 3.74M speedup is 1.00

Rsync Directory Remote System

4. Copy a Directory from Remote to Local Server

This command will help you sync a remote directory to a local directory. Here in this example, a
directory /root/rpmpkgs which is on a remote server is being copied into your local computer in
/tmp/myrpms.

# rsync -avzh root@[Link]:/root/rpmpkgs /tmp/myrpms

root@[Link]'s password:
receiving incremental file list
created directory /tmp/myrpms
rpmpkgs/
rpmpkgs/httpd-2.4.37-40.module_el8.5.0+852+0aafc63b.x86_64.rpm
rpmpkgs/mod_ssl-2.4.37-40.module_el8.5.0+852+0aafc63b.x86_64.rpm
rpmpkgs/nagios-4.4.6-4.el8.x86_64.rpm
rpmpkgs/nagios-plugins-2.3.3-5.el8.x86_64.rpm

sent 104 bytes received 3.49M bytes 997.68K bytes/sec

total size is 3.74M speedup is 1.07

Rsync Remote Directory to Local

5. Rsync Over SSH

With rsync, we can use SSH (Secure Shell) for data transfer, using SSH protocol while
transferring our data you can be ensured that your data is being transferred in a secured
connection with encryption so that nobody can read your data while it is being transferred over
the wire on the internet.

[ You might also like: How to Secure and Harden OpenSSH Server ]

Also when we use rsync we need to provide the user/root password to accomplish that
particular task, so using the SSH option will send your logins in an encrypted manner so that
your password will be safe.
To use rsync over SSH, you can use the -e option to specify the remote shell command, which
is typically ssh as shown.

# rsync [OPTIONS] -e ssh /path/to/source user@remote:/path/to/destination

6. Copy a File from a Remote Server to a Local Server with SSH

To synchronize a file from a remote server to a local server, you can specify a protocol with
rsync using the “-e” option with the protocol name you want to use.

Here in this example, We will be using the “ssh” with the “-e” option and perform data transfer.

# rsync -avzhe ssh root@[Link]:/root/[Link] /tmp

root@[Link]'s password:
receiving incremental file list
[Link]

sent 43 bytes received 1.10K bytes 325.43 bytes/sec

total size is 1.90K speedup is 1.67

Rsync Copy Remote File to Local

7. Copy a File from a Local Server to a Remote Server with SSH

To synchronize a file from a local server to a remote server using SSH, you can leverage the
following command as shown.

# rsync -avzhe ssh [Link] root@[Link]:/backups/

root@[Link]'s password:
sending incremental file list
created directory /backups
[Link]

sent 224.59K bytes received 66 bytes 64.19K bytes/sec

total size is 224.40K speedup is 1.00
Rsync Copy Local File to Remote

[ You might also like: How to Use Rsync to Sync New or

Changed/Modified Files in Linux ]

8. Show Progress While Transferring Data with Rsync

To show the progress while transferring the data from one machine to a different machine, we
can use the ‘--progress' option, which displays the files and the time remaining to complete
the transfer.

# rsync -avzhe ssh --progress /root/rpmpkgs root@[Link]:/root/rpmpkgs

root@[Link]'s password:
sending incremental file list
rpmpkgs/
rpmpkgs/httpd-2.4.37-40.module_el8.5.0+852+0aafc63b.x86_64.rpm
1.47M 100% 31.80MB/s 0:00:00 (xfr#1, to-chk=3/5)
rpmpkgs/mod_ssl-2.4.37-40.module_el8.5.0+852+0aafc63b.x86_64.rpm
138.01K 100% 2.69MB/s 0:00:00 (xfr#2, to-chk=2/5)
rpmpkgs/nagios-4.4.6-4.el8.x86_64.rpm
2.01M 100% 18.45MB/s 0:00:00 (xfr#3, to-chk=1/5)
rpmpkgs/nagios-plugins-2.3.3-5.el8.x86_64.rpm
120.48K 100% 1.04MB/s 0:00:00 (xfr#4, to-chk=0/5)

sent 3.74M bytes received 96 bytes 1.50M bytes/sec

total size is 3.74M speedup is 1.00
Rsync Progress While Copying Files

9. Include Files with Particular Extension with Rsync

To include specific files or patterns during a rsync operation, you can use the --include option
with an extension that matches all files.

# rsync -avz --include='*.txt' /path/to/source/

user@remote:/path/to/destination/

In the provided example, rsync will include only files with the .txt extension from the
/path/to/source/ directory during the transfer.

10. Exclude Files with Particular Extension with Rsync

Similarly, to exclude a specific extension during a rsync operation, you can use the --exclude
option with a wildcard pattern.

# rsync -avz --exclude='*.ext' /path/to/source/

user@remote:/path/to/destination/

In the provided example, rsync will exclude files with the specified extension (*.ext) during
the transfer, while including all other files and directories.

11. Include and Exclude Files with Rsync

To include and exclude specific files or patterns during a rsync operation, you can use both the
--include and --exclude options with appropriate wildcard patterns.
These two options allow us to include and exclude files by specifying parameters these option
helps us to specify those files or directories which you want to include in your sync and exclude
files and folders with which you don’t want to be transferred.

Here in this example, the rsync command will include those files and directories only which
starts with ‘R’ and exclude all other files and directories.

# rsync -avze ssh --include 'R*' --exclude '*'

root@[Link]:/var/lib/rpm/ /root/rpm

Rsync Include and Exclude Files

12. Use of –delete Option with Rsync

If a file or directory does not exist at the source, but already exists at the destination, you might
want to delete that existing file/directory at the target while syncing.

We can use the ‘--delete‘ option to delete files that are not there in the source directory.

The source and target are in sync. Now create a new file [Link] at the target.

[root@tecmint:~]# cd /root/rpm/
[root@tecmint:~/rpm]# touch [Link]
[root@tecmint:~/rpm]# rsync -avz --delete root@[Link]:/var/lib/rpm/
/root/rpm/

root@[Link]'s password:
receiving incremental file list
deleting [Link]
./
.[Link]
.[Link]
Basenames
Conflictname
Dirnames
Enhancename
Filetriggername
Group
Installtid
Name
Obsoletename
Packages
Providename
Sha1header
Sigmd5
Suggestname
Supplementname
Transfiletriggername
Triggername
__db.001
__db.002
__db.003

sent 445 bytes received 18,543,954 bytes 2,472,586.53 bytes/sec

total size is 71,151,616 speedup is 3.84

Target has the new file called [Link] when synchronizing with the source with the ‘–delete‘
option, it removed the file [Link].
Rsync Delete Option

13. Set File Transfer Limit with Rsync

You can specify the Max file size to be transferred or synced. You can do it with the “--max-
size” option. Here in this example, the Max file size is 200k, so this command will transfer only
those files which are equal to or smaller than 200k.

# rsync -avzhe ssh --max-size='200k' /var/lib/rpm/

root@[Link]:/root/tmprpm

root@[Link]'s password:
sending incremental file list
created directory /root/tmprpm
./
.[Link]
.[Link]
Conflictname
Enhancename
Filetriggername
Group
Installtid
Name
Obsoletename
Recommendname
Requirename
Sha1header
Sigmd5
Suggestname
Supplementname
Transfiletriggername
Triggername
__db.002

sent 129.52K bytes received 396 bytes 28.87K bytes/sec

total size is 71.15M speedup is 547.66
Rsync Set Max File Transfer Size

14. Automatically Delete Source Files After Transfer

Now, suppose you have the main web server and a data backup server, you created a daily
backup and synced it with your backup server, but now you don’t want to keep that local copy of
the backup in your web server.

So, will you wait for the transfer to complete and then delete that local backup file manually? Of
Course NO. This automatic deletion can be done using the ‘--remove-source-files‘ option.

# rsync --remove-source-files -zvh [Link]

root@[Link]:/tmp/backups/

root@[Link]'s password:
[Link]

sent 795 bytes received 2.33K bytes 894.29 bytes/sec

total size is 267.30K speedup is 85.40

[root@tecmint:~]# ls -l [Link]

ls: cannot access '[Link]': No such file or directory

Rsync Delete Source File After Transfer

15. Do a Dry Run with Rsync

If you are a newbie using rsync and don’t know what exactly your command going to do. Rsync
could really mess up the things in your destination folder and then doing an undo can be a
tedious job.

[ You might also like: How to Sync Two Apache Web

Servers/Websites Using Rsync ]

Use of this option will not make any changes to the files and shows the output of the command,
if the output shows exactly the same as you want to do then you can remove the ‘--dry-run‘
option from your command and run on the terminal.

# rsync --dry-run --remove-source-files -zvh [Link]

root@[Link]:/tmp/backups/

root@[Link]'s password:
[Link]

sent 50 bytes received 19 bytes 19.71 bytes/sec

total size is 267.30K speedup is 3,873.97 (DRY RUN)
Rsync Dry Run

16. Rsync Set Bandwidth Limit and Transfer File

You can set the bandwidth limit while transferring data from one machine to another machine
with the help of ‘--bwlimit‘ option. This option helps us to limit I/O bandwidth.

# rsync --bwlimit=100 -avzhe ssh /var/lib/rpm/

root@[Link]:/root/tmprpm/
root@[Link]'s password:
sending incremental file list
sent 324 bytes received 12 bytes 61.09 bytes/sec
total size is 38.08M speedup is 113347.05

Also, by default rsync syncs changed blocks and bytes only, if you explicitly want to sync the
whole file then you use the ‘-W‘ option with it.

# rsync -zvhW [Link] /tmp/backups/[Link]

[Link]
sent 14.71M bytes received 31 bytes 3.27M bytes/sec
total size is 16.18M speedup is 1.10
Conclusion

That concludes our overview of rsync and its capabilities. For further exploration of its extensive
options and functionalities, I encourage you to refer to the comprehensive manual pages (man
pages) available.

Tags rsync command

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171 Comments
Leave a Reply
Comment navigation
← Older Comments

1.

Fredrico Calamari

April 28, 2024 at 10:00 am

RHEL no longer uses the yum command and now uses dnf by default. Although you can
still run yum, it’s now an alias to dnf. Additionally, according to Red Hat calling yum is
deprecated and no longer recommended.

Reply

Ravi Saive

April 29, 2024 at 9:39 am

@Fredrico,

Yes, it’s true that RHEL now uses dnf instead of yum as the default package
manager. But, because we’ve been using yum for a long time in older versions of
RHEL, it can be hard to switch to dnf. However, it’s important to know that yum
has been made an alias to dnf, so it still works the same way for those who are
used to it.

Reply

2.

Ken

November 24, 2023 at 12:48 pm

Why not alphabetically ordered [OPTION…]?

 For example:

rsync -ahPzv SRC... [DEST]

Reply

3.

deagonmouth

July 19, 2023 at 10:12 pm

None of these commands will be executed as written. They are prefixed with a hash mark
(#) which in Linux indicates a comment.

Reply

Ravi Saive

July 20, 2023 at 11:42 am

@deagonmouth,

In Linux, the # symbol is used to indicate that the command is being run by the
root user, which is a superuser, and has full administrative privileges on the
system.

When you are logged in as the root user, your prompt will be prefixed with a #
symbol, which is used to indicate that you are running commands with root
privileges.

I hope this helps!

Reply

4.

Anthony

September 1, 2022 at 8:48 pm

 For CentOS/RHEL [Link] and older still need to use the “yum” command to install.

i.e. $ sudo yum install rsync

Reply

Ravi Saive

September 2, 2022 at 9:42 am

@Anthony,

Thanks, corrected the command in the article…

Reply

5.

Palak Shah

June 7, 2022 at 1:43 am

Hi,

How to create the Ubuntu iso file with installing the Magento 2 and all other config and
not more than original iso file size and also restore with same as new installing os.

Reply

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