HOWTO sync your files with rsync

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This HOWTO will expound to you basics of using the rsync tool.

About rsync

Rsync is a tool for file sync with remote machine and to create backups.

Where to download?

Source code is available at http://rsync.samba.org/download.html. There are also packages for nearly all distros of GNU/Linux and *BSD.

Use

The project consists of server (sharing files - rsyncd) and sync client (rsync)

Server

To start rsync we'll need a config file (/etc/rsyncd.conf), it's bulit like .INI files. Example file:

uid = nobody
gid = nobody

[projects]
  path = /home/projects/public
  comment = Projects

[ftp]
  path = /home/ftpd/pub
  comment = Public FTP

This file forces the rsync daemon to change user to nobody and share two dirs. More info about file building is THERE

Daemon should be started by inetd:

rsync   stream  tcp     nowait  root   /usr/bin/rsync rsyncd --daemon

Client

Client is handled by console (there are also some GUIs), basic command look like this:

rsync rsync://serwer.pl/projects projekty

Some switches' description:

-a --archive  - archive the files
-b --backup  - do a backup
-c --checksum  - use checksums to check integrity
-v --verbose  - debugging mode (-vv for more info)
-r --relative  - relative mode
-u --update  - don't download existing and unchanged files
-l --links  - copy links
-h --human-readable  - show data more human-friendly
-p --progress  - show progress
-z --compress  - compress incoming files
-6 --ipv6  - use IPv6
-4 --ipv4  - use IPv4

More info when used with --help, in manual and on project page.