Rsync Cheatsheet

Rsync (remote sync) is a powerful utility for efficiently transferring and synchronizing files between locations. It uses a delta-transfer algorithm to minimize data transfer by sending only the differences between source and destination files.

Rsync provides powerful options for selecting which files to transfer and which to skip. You can filter files based on patterns, file attributes, or use regular expressions for complex selection criteria.

These options control how rsync transfers files, including bandwidth management, handling of interrupted transfers, verification methods, and optimizations for special file types.

Synchronization options control how rsync handles differences between source and destination files. These options determine which files get updated, deleted, or preserved during the transfer process, allowing for precise control over file synchronization behavior.

Optimize rsync transfers for speed and efficiency with options that control parallelization, block sizes, timeouts, and other performance-related settings.

Rsync provides powerful options for creating backups, preserving older file versions, and efficiently storing incremental changes. These features enable robust backup strategies from simple file versioning to sophisticated snapshot systems.