How to Use rsync with Examples

Sync local directories

Now, it's time to use rsync for syncing files across multiple destinations. In this example, we'll be syncing the contents of dir_primary to dir_target.

Tell rsync to sync the contents of both the directories.

Here, we've used two different arguments.

-v: Tells rsync to run into verbose mode
-r: Recursive, required for directory syncing.

In this next example, we'll be using a different flag.

-a: A combination flag that stands for “archive”.

Using this flag, rsync will sync the contents recursively while preserving any symbolic, special/device files, modification times, file permissions, group, owner, etc. It's more commonly used than the “-r” flag. For archival, this is a more recommended method.

Did you notice that in all the commands we've run so far, in the case of source, we always retain the “/” after the name of the directory? This is to tell rsync that the source is all the contents of the source directory. If the “/” at the end of the source directory isn't used, rsync will simply create a copy of the source directory instead of its contents.

Let's check it out with an example.

Check the output result.

Most of the time, this is not something we need. However, depending on the situation, it might come in handy.

Rsync test run

Before running a rsync command, it's always important to verify that the command will perform the action as expected. If you want to test the rsync action for a certain command, use the “-n” or “-dry-run” flag.

Here, the output shows what rsync would perform if the command was actually run. Whenever you're testing, don't forget to use the “-v” flag to get an accurate representation of what's happening.

Rsync over a remote connection

This is another interesting feature rsync supports. If your backup location is somewhere remote, you can easily configure rsync to perform backup on the remote location through SSH. However, both the machines must have rsync installed. Moreover, both systems also need to have SSH keys set.

Ready? Let's get started. At first, it's the archive syncing.