Copying and transferring files from server to server is a common task conducted by most IT specialists. Some use cases involve creating a sufficient amount of database backups in the case of a power outage. Standard synchronization commands used are scp and rcp but come with their own set of faults.

On Unix-type operating systems, the rsync command synchronizes files from a source to a target, on a local machine or over a secure network connection. It’s an excellent substitute for rapidly copying files to a destination server. I’ll be showing a few commands and options.

Command Syntax Examples

Command	Description
rsync [OPTION…] SRC… [DEST]	Local use
rsync [OPTION…] [USER@]HOST:SRC… [DEST]	Pulling from a remote host
rsync [OPTION…] SRC… [USER@]HOST:DEST	Push to a remote host

Command Examples

Example	Description
rsync -a -v –progress /test/dir/ ubuntu@testhostname:/test/dir2/	Copies local directory “/test/dir/” to the remote host “testhostname”

Rsync Options

Options	Description
-v, –verbose	increase verbosity
-q, –quiet	suppress non-error messages
-c, –checksum	Check for errors
-a, –archive	archive mode
-n, –dry-run	Perform a trial run of the command with no changes done
“sync -e”	Pass rsync command into a remote host
–ignore-errors	Ignore any present errors
-h, –human-readable	output numbers in a human-readable format
–progress	Show progress of rsync command output