Reference
Everything below is the project's own documentation, linked where it actually lives. Nothing is copied or paraphrased here — the only thing this page adds is an ordering, and a line telling you which of these you need.
Command reference
The manual pages. If you are looking up what an option does, the answer is in the first of these.
- rsync(1) — the manual page
- Every option rsync has, with the filter rules and exit codes. Long, and the definitive answer to any question about what a flag does.
- Who needs it: Everyone, eventually. Search it rather than reading it.
- rsyncd.conf(5) — daemon configuration
- The configuration file format for running rsync as a daemon that serves named modules over the network.
- Who needs it: You are setting up a server others copy from, not copying files yourself.
- rsync-ssl(1)
- A wrapper that tunnels a connection to an rsync daemon through TLS.
- Who needs it: You are copying from an rsync:// URL and want the transfer encrypted.
- rrsync(1) — restricted rsync
- A wrapper for an SSH authorized_keys entry that limits what a key is allowed to rsync, and where.
- Who needs it: You are giving someone else rsync access to one directory on your server.
How rsync works
Why the transfers are small, for readers who want the mechanism and not just the flags.
- How rsync works
- A plain-language walkthrough of the roles rsync splits itself into — sender, receiver, generator — and how they pipeline.
- Who needs it: You want to understand the tool rather than just drive it. Start here.
- The rsync algorithm (technical report)
- The original paper by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras describing the rolling-checksum method that lets rsync send only changed blocks of a file.
- Who needs it: You want the actual algorithm, with the maths.
Project files
Documents shipped with the source, served from the project's own download area.
- README
- The project's own short introduction, shipped in every release.
- Who needs it: You want the maintainers' one-page description rather than anyone else's.
- INSTALL
- Build prerequisites and configure options for compiling from source.
- Who needs it: You are building rsync yourself. Read it before ./configure.
- NEWS — the full changelog
- Every change in every release, including releases still in development.
- Who needs it: You are deciding whether to upgrade, or checking whether a bug is already fixed.
- COPYING — the licence
- rsync is free software under the GNU General Public License, version 3.
- Who needs it: You are redistributing rsync or shipping it inside something else.
Source code
For reading, building and contributing.
- Source repository
- The canonical git repository. Browse the code, clone it, or read the in-progress work for the next release.
- Who needs it: You are contributing, or you need a fix that is not in a release yet.
- Release tags
- Zip and tar.gz archives generated by GitHub for each tag. These lack the generated files that official release tarballs include.
- Who needs it: You want a specific historical version and do not need to build it the official way.
- rsync-patches
- Patches for work-in-progress features and features considered too niche for the main release.
- Who needs it: You need a feature rsync does not ship, and are willing to build it.
Wondering what changed recently rather than what an option does? The release history covers 3.4.4 in detail and the three releases before it, and points at the NEWS file for everything earlier.
Embedding rsync in a product, or distributing something that bundles it? COPYING above is rsync's own licence, but the bundled zlib and popt code carries separate terms — licensing and bundling reads through all three.
What this page leaves out, and why
The project's own documentation page and resources page list more than this — mostly guides for systems that no longer exist and links that no longer resolve, checked on 12 August 2026. Current Windows options are on the install page instead. Troubleshooting has moved too: the project splits it across a FAQ and a separate issues and debugging page; this redesign puts both on one page divided by symptom — Get help.