Customizing rsync commands with expert options

If you are familiar with using Terminal and writing UNIX commands, or if you want to learn, you can enter your own rsync options in the text field provided. Use caution since these options can be powerful and have unexpected results if you make a slight error. First you should read the man page for rsync 3.

Expert options

Unless you check the "expert options" check box, backupList+ uses the default rsync options. If you check "expert options" and enter anything in the text field, it will replace all rsync options so be careful to enter the correct options. Always be sure to completely delete any text when clearing the text field since even a dash will override built in options.

Basically, backupList+ supplies the beginning path to rsync and the source and destination paths. All other options are entered in the "expert options" text field. Note also that backupList+ supplies delete option, incremental options, and slowdown options (limit bandwidth) by checking off the appropriate boxes in the Settings panels. You should therefore add these to your custom options but use the Settings check boxes instead.

Also note that you always need a space between each option string.

the default rsync options include: " -aHAXN --fileflags --protect-decmpfs --force-change --stats"

the default options shoukld always include: " -aHAXN --fileflags --protect-decmpfs "

-a (preserves most file attributes, resource forks an other things)

-H (preserves hard links)

-A (preserves Acl's" or access control lists)

-X (preserves "Xattr's" or extended attributes)

-N (also called --crtimes) (preserves creation dates)

--fileflags (preserves file flags and locked files etc.)

--force-change (needed to preserve immutable flags- see man page for more options)

--protect-decmpfs (needed to preserve the new file compression on OS 10.6 Snow Leopard)

--stats (gives a stats report at the end of files transferred etc...)

-v ( adds more progress information to the output- -vvv will give verbose logging information for debugging)

you can customize the options by writing your own.

" -aAX -v " for instance, would just save Acl's and Xattr's but not creation dates and hard links. This might increase speed of transfer but sacrifice those aspects.

Or you could add certain other options such as:

" -aHAXN --fileflags --protect-decmpfs --exclude=/path/to/files/to/be/excluded/*"

this would add an exclude pattern which would exclude files matching the pattern (or path) indicated. To use this option you must read and be familiar with "Exclude patterns" in the rsync man pages.

Rysnc is extremely versatile and can be confiigured for almost anything you want. it can also transfer files between different types of operating systems.

Include paths

If you check this box, you must supply the full range of options as well as the paths for source and destination. This is useful if you are doing more complicated rsync mirroring on a remote machine for example, or some network situations.

backuplist+ will supply the initial rsync path and the output path- you must supply the rest of the command line. Again, only try this with a good understanding of rsync command line usage.

A typical rsync command would look like this:

/path/to/rsync -aHAXN --fileflags -v --progress /path/to/source/folder /path/to/destination/folder &> path/to/output file

So you would write in the text field:

-aHAXN --fileflags -v --progress /yourpath/to/source/folder /yourpath/to/destination/folder