Rsync File Sync Mastery

Basic rsync syntax

rsync source/ destination/

Note: Trailing slash matters!

• source/ copies contents of source
• source copies the directory itself

Sync with progress

rsync -avh --progress source/ destination/

• -a: Archive mode (preserves permissions, timestamps)
• -v: Verbose
• -h: Human-readable sizes

Sync over SSH

rsync -avz source/ user@remote:/path/to/destination/

• -z: Compress during transfer

Dry run (preview without changes)

rsync -avhn --delete source/ destination/

• -n: Dry run
• --delete: Remove files in destination not in source

Exclude files/directories

rsync -av --exclude='node_modules' --exclude='*.log' source/ destination/

Resume interrupted transfer

rsync -avP source/ destination/

• -P: Same as --partial --progress

Sync only specific file types

rsync -av --include='*.jpg' --exclude='*' source/ destination/

Bandwidth limit (1000 KB/s)

rsync -av --bwlimit=1000 source/ destination/

Show what would be deleted

rsync -avn --delete source/ destination/ | grep deleting