Rsync

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rsync is an open source utility that provides fast incremental file transfer.

Contents

Installation

Install the rsync package using pacman:

# pacman -S rsync

Usage

For more examples, search the Community Contributions and General Programming forums.

As a cp alternative

rsync can readily be used as an advanced cp alternative, specially useful for copying larger files:

$ rsync -P src dest

The -P option is the same as --partial --progress, which keeps partially transferred files and shows a progress bar during transfer.

As a backup utility

The rsync protocol can easily be used for backups, only transferring files that have changed since the last backup. This section describes a very simple scheduled backup script using rsync, typically used for copying to removable media. For a more thorough example, see rsync/Full system backup.

Automated backup

For the sake of this example, the script is created in the /etc/cron.daily directory, and will be run on a daily basis if a cron daemon is installed and properly configured. Configuring and using cron is outside the scope of this article.

First, create a script containing the appropriate command options:

File: /etc/cron.daily/backup
#!/bin/bash
rsync -a --delete /folder/to/backup /location/to/backup &> /dev/null
-a 
indicates that files should be archived, meaning that all of their attributes are preserved
--delete 
means files deleted on the source are to be deleted on the backup aswell

Here, /folder/to/backup should to be changed to what needs to be backed-up (/home, for example) and /location/to/backup is where the backup should be saved (/media/disk, for instance).

Finally, the script must be executable:

# chmod +x /etc/cron.daily/rsync.backup

Automated backup with SSH

If backing-up to a remote host using SSH, use this script instead:

File: /etc/cron.daily/backup
#!/bin/bash
rsync -a -r --delete -e ssh /folder/to/backup remoteuser@remotehost:/location/to/backup &> /dev/null
-e ssh 
tells rsync to use SSH
remoteuser 
is the user on the host remotehost
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