Hi,
rsync is a powerful tool for syncing or backup folders. This post describes the parameters I usually use.
1 | michael@debdev ~# rsync -a ~/MyStuff michael@devdeb2:/home/michael/MyStuff |
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 | -a => means -rlptgoD-r, --recursive recurse into directories-l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks-p, --perms preserve permissions-t, --times preserve modification times-g, --group preserve group --devices preserve device files (super-user only) --specials preserve special files-o, --owner preserve owner (super-user only)-D same as --devices --specials --devices preserve device files (super-user only) --specials preserve special files |
other very usefull options:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 | -P same as --partial --progress --partial keep partially transferred files --progress show progress during transfer-u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver-z, --compress compress file data during the transfer-v, --verbose increase verbosity--stats give some file-transfer stats# Full sync delete files in destination which not exist in source--delete delete extraneous files from destination dirs# On Fullsync just rename a file instead of delete them when it not exist in source-b --suffix=.bak--numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name of source and target. Just copy the numerical user/group ids |
And as a full command line. This example uses ssh as transport protocol and requires that rsync is installed an both, the source and the target machine.
1 | michael@debdev ~# rsync -a -P -u -z --stats root@devdeb2:/srv /mnt/sdb2 |
rsync can also be used with a User/Password respectively a shared secret authentification without ssh.
On the target machine install and start rsync as a daemon.
1 2 | root@debdev ~# apt-get install rsyncroot@debdev ~# systemctl enable rsync |
Open respectively create file /etc/rsyncd.conf and add a “Module”. In this example customized monit files. Explanation: A module exports a directory by a symblic name. uid and gid are the credentials under which the rsync process runs. Means the user needs access to the path defined in the module.
[monit]
path = /etc/monit/conf.d
comment = Monit
uid = root
gid = root
auth users = monit-replication
secrets file = /etc/rsyncd.secrets
/etc/rsyncd.secrets
monit-replication:MySecretPassword
On your source machine. Create also a /etc/rsyncd.secrets file with just the password as content.
MySecretPassword
Set permissions
1 2 | root@debdev2 ~# chown root:root /etc/rsyncd.secretsroot@debdev2 ~# chmod 400 /etc/rsyncd.secrets |
To run rsync without prompting for the password specify the –password-file=/etc/rsyncd.secrets parameter or set the Environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD
1 | root@debdev2 ~# export RSYNC_PASSWORD=MySecretPassword |
Check folder access
1 | root@debdev2 ~# rsync --password-file=/etc/rsyncd.secrets rsync://monit-replication@debdev/monit |
And get the folder
1 | root@debdev2 ~# rsync -a -P -u -z --stats --password-file=/etc/rsyncd.secrets rsync://monit-replication@debdev/monit /tmp |
Filters. Note: Default is to includes all. This example copies all pdf files. Importent is to set the include before the exclude filter because the first match determines if a file is copied or not.
1 2 | root@debdev2 ~# rsync -a -P -u -z --stats --include '*.pdf' --exclude '*' --password-file=/etc/rsyncd.secrets rsync://monit-replication@debdev/monit /tmp--include '*.pdf' --exclude '*' |
To exclude more the one folders use the exclude switch multiple times
1 | michael@debdev ~# rsync -a -exclude .cache -exclude Downloads ~/MyStuff michael@devdeb2:/home/michael/MyStuff |
Michael