rsync in Depth
Efficient Transfer, Backup, and Synchronization.
Planned
rsync moves files by sending only the parts that changed. Its rolling and strong checksums let it compare a local tree against a remote one and transfer the differences. This book will cover that algorithm and the tool built on it: filters that decide what moves, transports over SSH and the daemon, and hard-linked snapshots that turn rsync into a backup system.
Status: planned title. Writing has not started. The repository and the cover exist; the scope below is the plan.
The first edition will ship DRM-free as PDF and EPUB, with free updates.
From the delta algorithm to backups.
No chapters are written yet. This is the plan: the areas the book will cover, from the transfer algorithm out to backup workflows. It targets rsync 3 on Linux, BSD, and macOS.
- The delta-transfer algorithm Rolling and strong checksums, and why rsync sends only the changed blocks.
- Filters and selection Include and exclude rules, their precedence, and choosing exactly what moves.
- Transports Running over SSH and over the rsync daemon, and securing each.
- Backup workflows Hard-linked snapshots with --link-dest for space-efficient point-in-time backups.
- Preservation and deletion Permissions, ownership, and times, and the --delete options with their safety flags.
- Scale and diagnosis Large trees, bandwidth limits, dry runs, and reading rsync's own statistics.
For people who move data and cannot lose it.
This book is for anyone who copies files between machines for a living. It assumes shell familiarity and explains what rsync does under each flag, so the results stop being a surprise.
- Sysadmins and SREs who move data between machines and want to know exactly what rsync will and will not transfer.
- Backup engineers building snapshot rotations who want hard-linked, space-efficient histories they can restore from.
- Developers automating deployments and mirrors who need rsync's filters and exit codes to behave predictably in scripts.
Planned.
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