rsync is an open source utility that provides fast incremental file transfer. rsync is freely available under the GNU General Public License and is currently being maintained by Wayne Davison.
rsync is a file transfer program for Unix systems. rsync uses the “rsync algorithm” which provides a very fast method for bringing remote files into sync. It does this by sending just the differences in the files across the link, without requiring that both sets of files are present at one of the ends of the link beforehand.
rsync -rt /home/transfer_me root@x.x.x.x:/home
The switches breakdown as follows:
- -avvz = archive, verbose x 2, compress
- –times = preserve modification times
- –stats = give some file-transfer stats
- –checksum = skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
- –human-readable = output numbers in a human-readable format
- –acls = preserve ACLs (implies -p)
- –itemize-changes = output a change-summary for all updates
- –progress = show progress during transfer
- –out-format='[%t] [%i] (Last Modified: %M) (bytes: %-10l) %-100n’
- %t = current date time
- %i = an itemized list of what is being updated
- %M = the last-modified time of the file
- %-10l = the length of the file in bytes (-10 is for alignment and precision)
- %-100n = the filename (short form; trailing “/” on dir) (-100 is for alignment and precision)
NOTE: See the man pages for rsync and rsyncd.conf for full details on the above switches.