When backing up files, I used to just go with cp or scp. However, when transferring large amount of data, rsync turns out to be a better option as it provides additional features like incremental backup to minimize data transfer. This post summarizes some common use cases of rsync.

Most Common use case:

The simplest use case is:

rsync -azP dir1/ dir2
  • -a is similar to -r. It’s more recommended as it preserves symbolic links, special and device files, modification times, groups, owners, and permissions.
  • -z reduces the network transfer by adding compression. Typically omitted in local backup.
  • -P combines the flags --progress and --partial. This first flag provides a progress bar for the transfers, and the second flag allows you to resume interrupted transfers:

To just compare two directories:

# Dry run, send incremental file list
rsync -anv dir1/ dir2

Here, option -n means dry run, same as --dry-run.

Others interesting features:

By default rsync does not remove files in destination. In order to really sync between source and destination, --delete option can be used.

rsync -aP --delete source destination

Option --exclude can also be used to

rsync -aP --exclude=pattern_to_exclude source destination

References

  1. How To Use Rsync to Sync Local and Remote Directories

License

Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.