Demonstrating Syncing two directories using rsync utility

Assumption:

 -    Directory “source” need to be sync with “destination” directory

-    For ease of demonstration, destination files I also on same box where source directory is .

=> Initially destination directory is empty. Source directory have 6 files

LocalSystem# ll source destination/

destination/:

total 0

source:

total 0

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file1

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file2

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file3

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file4

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file5

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file6

=> Here is how we can sync destination directory with source directory

LocalSystem# rsync -avz /tmp/source/      RemotSystem:/tmp/destination/

LocalSystem# ll source destination

destination:

total 0

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file1

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file2

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file3

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file4

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file5

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file6

source:

total 0

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file1

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file2

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file3

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file4

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file5

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file6

=> Some of the files have been deleted from source directory. rsync will delete them from destination on next sync.

LocalSystem#  rsync -avz --delete /tmp/source/      RemotSystem:/tmp/destination/

root@     RemotSystem's password:

sending incremental file list

./

deleting file6

deleting file4

deleting file2

sent 65 bytes  received 15 bytes  14.55 bytes/sec

total size is 0  speedup is 0.00

LocalSystem# ll source destination/

destination/:

total 0

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file1

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file3

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file5

source:

total 0

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file1

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file3

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file5

=> Now some new files are created and some more files deleted, rsync will copy new file to destination directory and delete already deleted file from source.

LocalSystem#  rsync -avz --delete /tmp/source/      RemotSystem:/tmp/destination/

root@     RemotSystem's password:

sending incremental file list

./

deleting file5

deleting file3

file7

file8

sent 145 bytes  received 53 bytes  44.00 bytes/sec

total size is 0  speedup is 0.00

LocalSystem# ll source destination/

destination/:

total 0

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file1

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:29 file7

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:29 file8

source:

total 0

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:19 file1

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:29 file7

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-09-18 09:29 file8