Note

This page lacks explanation and doesn't explain what the user can do with rsync. It needs revision to be useful.

Introduction

rsync is a program that synchronizes files and directories from one location to another while minimizing data transfer using delta encoding when appropriate. An important feature of rsync not found in most similar programs/protocols is that the mirroring takes place with only one transmission in each direction.

rsync can copy or display directory contents and copy files, optionally using compression and recursion.

This document is a rsync quick howto.

Installation

To install rsync do the following steps:

$ sudo apt-get install rsync xinetd

Configuration

1. Edit /etc/default/rsync to start rsync as daemon using xinetd.

$ sudo vim /etc/default/rsync
  RSYNC_ENABLE=inetd

2. Create /etc/xinetd.d/rsync to launch rsync via xinetd.

$ sudo vim /etc/xinetd.d/rsync
  service rsync
    {
        disable         = no
        socket_type     = stream
        wait            = no
        user            = root
        server          = /usr/bin/rsync
        server_args     = --daemon
        log_on_failure  += USERID
    }

3. Create /etc/rsyncd.conf configuration for rsync in daemon mode.

$ sudo vim /etc/rsyncd.conf
  max connections = 2
  log file = /var/log/rsync.log
  timeout = 300

  [share]
  comment = Public Share
  path = /home/share
  read only = no
  list = yes
  uid = nobody
  gid = nogroup
  auth users = user
  secrets file = /etc/rsyncd.secrets

4. Create /etc/rsyncd.secrets for user's password.

$ sudo vim /etc/rsyncd.secrets 
  user:password

4.a

$ sudo chmod 600 /etc/rsyncd.secrets

5. Start/Restart xinetd

$ sudo /etc/init.d/xinetd restart

Testing

Run the following command to check if everything is ok.

$ sudo rsync user@192.168.0.1::share
  Password: 
  drwxr-xr-x        4096 2006/12/13 09:41:59 .
  drwxr-xr-x        4096 2006/11/23 18:00:03 folders

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