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rsyncd.conf(5)							rsyncd.conf(5)

NAME
       rsyncd.conf - configuration file for rsync server

SYNOPSIS
       rsyncd.conf

DESCRIPTION
       The  rsyncd.conf	 file is the runtime configuration file for rsync when
       run with the --daemon option. When run in  this	way  rsync  becomes  a
       rsync  server listening on TCP port 873. Connections from rsync clients
       are accepted for either anonymous or authenticated rsync sessions.

       The rsyncd.conf	file  controls	authentication,	 access,  logging  and
       available modules.

FILE FORMAT
       The  file  consists of modules and parameters. A module begins with the
       name of the module in square brackets and continues until the next mod‐
       ule begins. Modules contain parameters of the form ´name = value´.

       The  file  is line-based - that is, each newline-terminated line repre‐
       sents either a comment, a module name or a parameter.

       Only the first equals sign in a parameter  is  significant.  Whitespace
       before  or  after the first equals sign is discarded. Leading, trailing
       and internal whitespace in module and parameter	names  is  irrelevant.
       Leading	and  trailing  whitespace  in  a parameter value is discarded.
       Internal whitespace within a parameter value is retained verbatim.

       Any line beginning with a hash (#) is ignored, as are lines  containing
       only whitespace.

       Any line ending in a \ is "continued" on the next line in the customary
       UNIX fashion.

       The values following the equals sign in parameters  are	all  either  a
       string  (no  quotes needed) or a boolean, which may be given as yes/no,
       0/1 or true/false. Case is not significant in boolean  values,  but  is
       preserved in string values.

LAUNCHING THE RSYNC DAEMON
       The  rsync  daemon  is  launched	 by  specifying the --daemon option to
       rsync.

       The daemon must run with root privileges if you wish to use chroot,  to
       bind  to	 a port numbered under 1024 (as is the default 873), or to set
       file ownership.	Otherwise, it must just have permission	 to  read  and
       write the appropriate data, log, and lock files.

       You  can	 launch it either via inetd or as a stand-alone daemon. If run
       as a daemon then just run the command "rsync --daemon" from a  suitable
       startup script.

       When run via inetd you should add a line like this to /etc/services:

	      rsync	      873/tcp

       and a single line something like this to /etc/inetd.conf:

	      rsync    stream	tcp	 nowait	  root	 /usr/bin/rsync rsyncd
	      --daemon

       Replace	"/usr/bin/rsync"  with	the  path  to  where  you  have	 rsync
       installed  on your system.  You will then need to send inetd a HUP sig‐
       nal to tell it to reread its config file.

       Note that you should not send the rsync server a HUP signal to force it
       to reread the /etc/rsyncd.conf. The file is re-read on each client con‐
       nection.

GLOBAL OPTIONS
       The first parameters in the file (before a  [module]  header)  are  the
       global parameters.

       You  may	 also  include any module parameters in the global part of the
       config file in which case the supplied value will override the  default
       for that parameter.

       motd file
	      The  "motd  file" option allows you to specify a "message of the
	      day" to display to clients on each connect.  This	 usually  con‐
	      tains  site information and any legal notices. The default is no
	      motd file.

       log file
	      The "log file" option tells the rsync daemon to log messages  to
	      that  file rather than using syslog. This is particularly useful
	      on systems  (such	 as  AIX)  where  syslog()  doesn´t  work  for
	      chrooted programs.

       pid file
	      The  "pid	 file"	option	tells  the  rsync  daemon to write its
	      process id to that file.

       syslog facility
	      The "syslog facility" option allows you to  specify  the	syslog
	      facility	name  to  use  when  logging  messages	from the rsync
	      server. You may use any standard syslog facility name  which  is
	      defined  on  your system. Common names are auth, authpriv, cron,
	      daemon, ftp, kern, lpr,  mail,  news,  security,	syslog,	 user,
	      uucp, local0, local1, local2, local3, local4, local5, local6 and
	      local7. The default is daemon.

       socket options
	      This option can provide endless fun for people who like to  tune
	      their  systems  to  the  utmost degree. You can set all sorts of
	      socket options which may make  transfers	faster	(or  slower!).
	      Read  the	 man page for the setsockopt() system call for details
	      on some of the options you may be able to	 set.  By  default  no
	      special socket options are set.

MODULE OPTIONS
       After  the  global  options you should define a number of modules, each
       module exports a	 directory  tree  as  a	 symbolic  name.  Modules  are
       exported	 by  specifying a module name in square brackets [module] fol‐
       lowed by the options for that module.

       comment
	      The "comment" option specifies a description string that is dis‐
	      played  next  to	the  module name when clients obtain a list of
	      available modules. The default is no comment.

       path   The  "path"  option  specifies  the  directory  in  the  servers
	      filesystem  to  make available in this module.  You must specify
	      this option for each module in /etc/rsyncd.conf.

       use chroot
	      If "use chroot" is true, the rsync server	 will  chroot  to  the
	      "path"  before starting the file transfer with the client.  This
	      has the advantage of extra protection against possible implemen‐
	      tation security holes, but it has the disadvantages of requiring
	      super-user privileges and of not being able to  follow  symbolic
	      links  outside  of  the  new  root path when reading.  When "use
	      chroot" is false, for security reasons symlinks may only be rel‐
	      ative  paths  pointing  to other files within the root path, and
	      leading slashes are removed from absolute	 paths.	  The  default
	      for "use chroot" is true.

       max connections
	      The  "max	 connections" option allows you to specify the maximum
	      number of simultaneous connections you will allow to this module
	      of  your	rsync  server. Any clients connecting when the maximum
	      has been reached will receive a  message	telling	 them  to  try
	      later.  The default is 0 which means no limit.

       lock file
	      The  "lock file" option specifies the file to use to support the
	      "max connections" option. The rsync server uses  record  locking
	      on  this	file  to  ensure that the max connections limit is not
	      exceeded. The default is /var/run/rsyncd.lock.

       read only
	      The "read only" option determines whether clients will  be  able
	      to  upload  files	 or  not.  If  "read  only"  is	 true then any
	      attempted uploads will  fail.  If	 "read	only"  is  false  then
	      uploads will be possible if file permissions on the server allow
	      them. The default is for all modules to be read only.

       list   The "list" option determines if this  module  should  be	listed
	      when the client asks for a listing of available modules. By set‐
	      ting this to false you can create hidden modules. The default is
	      for modules to be listable.

       uid    The  "uid"  option  specifies the user name or user id that file
	      transfers to and from that module should take place as when  the
	      daemon  was  run	as  root. In combination with the "gid" option
	      this determines what file permissions are available. The default
	      is uid -2, which is normally the user "nobody".

       gid    The  "gid" option specifies the group name or group id that file
	      transfers to and from that module should take place as when  the
	      daemon  was  run as root. This complements the "uid" option. The
	      default is gid -2, which is normally the group "nobody".

       exclude
	      The "exclude" option allows you to  specify  a  space  separated
	      list  of patterns to add to the exclude list. This is equivalent
	      to the client  specifying	 these	patterns  with	the  --exclude
	      option  except that the exclude list is not passed to the client
	      and thus only apply on the server.  Only	one  "exclude"	option
	      may be specified, but you can use "-" and "+" before patterns to
	      specify exclude/include.

	      Note that this option is not designed with  strong  security  in
	      mind,  it	 is  quite  possible  that  a client may find a way to
	      bypass this exclude list. If you want to absolutely ensure  that
	      certain files cannot be accessed then use the uid/gid options in
	      combination with file permissions.

       exclude from
	      The "exclude from" option specifies a  filename  on  the	server
	      that contains exclude patterns, one per line. This is equivalent
	      to the client specifying the --exclude-from option with a equiv‐
	      alent  file  except  that the resulting exclude patterns are not
	      passed to the client and thus only apply on the server. See also
	      the note about security for the exclude option above.

       include
	      The  "include"  option  allows  you to specify a space separated
	      list of patterns which rsync should not exclude. This is equiva‐
	      lent  to the client specifying these patterns with the --include
	      option.  This is useful as it allows you to build up quite  com‐
	      plex  exclude/include  rules.   Only one "include" option may be
	      specified, but you can use "+" and "-" before patterns to switch
	      include/exclude.

	      See  the	section	 of exclude patterns in the rsync man page for
	      information on the syntax of this option.

       include from
	      The "include from" option specifies a  filename  on  the	server
	      that contains include patterns, one per line. This is equivalent
	      to the client specifying the --include-from option with a equiv‐
	      alent file.

       auth users
	      The  "auth  users"  option specifies a comma and space separated
	      list of usernames that will be allowed to connect to  this  mod‐
	      ule. The usernames do not need to exist on the local system. The
	      usernames may also contain shell wildcard characters.  If	 "auth
	      users"  is  set  then  the client will be challenged to supply a
	      username and password to connect	to  the	 module.  A  challenge
	      response	authentication protocol is used for this exchange. The
	      plain text usernames are passwords are stored in the file speci‐
	      fied  by the "secrets file" option. The default is for all users
	      to be able to connect without a password (this is called "anony‐
	      mous rsync").

       secrets file
	      The "secrets file" option specifies the name of a file that con‐
	      tains the username:password pairs used for  authenticating  this
	      module.  This  file is only consulted if the "auth users" option
	      is specified. The file is line based and contains username:pass‐
	      word pairs separated by a single colon. Any line starting with a
	      hash (#) is considered a comment and is skipped.	The  passwords
	      can  contain  any	 characters  but be warned that many operating
	      systems limit the length of passwords that can be typed  at  the
	      client end, so you may find that passwords longer than 8 charac‐
	      ters don´t work.

	      There is no default for the  "secrets  file"  option,  you  must
	      choose a name (such as /etc/rsyncd.secrets).  The file must nor‐
	      mally not be readable by "other"; see "strict modes".

       strict modes
	      The "strict modes" option determines whether or not the  permis‐
	      sions on the secrets file will be checked.  If "strict modes" is
	      true, then the secrets file must not be readable by any user  id
	      other  than  the one that the rsync daemon is running under.  If
	      "strict modes" is	 false,	 the  check  is	 not  performed.   The
	      default  is  true.   This	 option was added to accommodate rsync
	      running on the Windows operating system.

       hosts allow
	      The "hosts allow" option allows you to specify a	list  of  pat‐
	      terns that are matched against a connecting clients hostname and
	      IP address. If none of the patterns match then the connection is
	      rejected.

	      Each pattern can be in one of five forms:

       o      a	 dotted decimal IP address. In this case the incoming machines
	      IP address must match exactly.

       o      a address/mask in the form a.b.c.d/n were n is the number of one
	      bits  in in the netmask. All IP addresses which match the masked
	      IP address will be allowed in.

       o      a address/mask in the form a.b.c.d/e.f.g.h where	e.f.g.h	 is  a
	      netmask in dotted decimal notation. All IP addresses which match
	      the masked IP address will be allowed in.

       o      a hostname. The hostname as determined by a reverse lookup  will
	      be matched (case insensitive) against the pattern. Only an exact
	      match is allowed in.

       o      a hostname pattern using wildcards. These are matched using  the
	      same  rules  as  normal  unix  filename matching. If the pattern
	      matches then the client is allowed in.

	      You can also combine "hosts allow" with a separate "hosts	 deny"
	      option.  If  both	 options  are specified then the "hosts allow"
	      option s checked first and a match results in the	 client	 being
	      able  to	connect. The "hosts deny" option is then checked and a
	      match means that the host is rejected.  If  the  host  does  not
	      match either the "hosts allow" or the "hosts deny" patterns then
	      it is allowed to connect.

	      The default is no "hosts allow" option, which  means  all	 hosts
	      can connect.

       hosts deny
	      The "hosts deny" option allows you to specify a list of patterns
	      that are matched against a connecting clients  hostname  and  IP
	      address. If the pattern matches then the connection is rejected.
	      See the "hosts allow" option for more information.

	      The default is no "hosts deny" option, which means all hosts can
	      connect.

       ignore errors
	      The  "ignore  errors" option tells rsyncd to ignore IO errors on
	      the server when deciding whether to run the delete phase of  the
	      transfer.	 Normally  rsync  skips	 the  --delete	step if any IO
	      errors have occurred in order to	prevent	 disasterous  deletion
	      due  to a temporary resource shortage or other IO error. In some
	      cases this test is counter productive so you can use this option
	      to turn off this behaviour.

       ignore nonreadable
	      This  tells the rsync server to completely ignore files that are
	      not readable by the user. This is	 useful	 for  public  archives
	      that may have some non-readable files among the directories, and
	      the sysadmin doesn´t want those files to be seen at all.

       transfer logging
	      The "transfer logging" option enables per-file logging of	 down‐
	      loads  and  uploads in a format somewhat similar to that used by
	      ftp daemons. If you want to customize the log  formats  look  at
	      the log format option.

       log format
	      The  "log	 format"  option allows you to specify the format used
	      for logging file transfers when transfer logging is enabled. The
	      format  is  a  text  string containing embedded single character
	      escape sequences prefixed with a percent (%) character.

	      The prefixes that are understood are:

       o      %h for the remote host name

       o      %a for the remote IP address

       o      %l for the length of the file in bytes

       o      %p for the process id of this rsync session

       o      %o for the operation, which is either "send" or "recv"

       o      %f for the filename

       o      %P for the module path

       o      %m for the module name

       o      %t for the current date time

       o      %u for the authenticated username (or the null string)

       o      %b for the number of bytes actually transferred

       o      %c when sending files this gives the number  of  checksum	 bytes
	      received for this file

	      The  default log format is "%o %h [%a] %m (%u) %f %l", and a "%t
	      [%p] " is always added to the  beginning	when  using  the  "log
	      file" option.

	      A	 perl  script  called  rsyncstats  to summarize this format is
	      included in the rsync source code distribution.

       timeout
	      The "timeout" option allows you to override the  clients	choice
	      for IO timeout for this module. Using this option you can ensure
	      that rsync won´t wait on a dead client forever. The  timeout  is
	      specified	 in  seconds.  A value of zero means no timeout and is
	      the default. A good choice for anonymous rsync  servers  may  be
	      600 (giving a 10 minute timeout).

       refuse options
	      The  "refuse options" option allows you to specify a space sepa‐
	      rated list of rsync command line options that will be refused by
	      your  rsync  server.  The full names of the options must be used
	      (i.e., you must use "checksum" not "c" to disable checksumming).
	      When  an	option	is refused, the server prints an error message
	      and exits.  To prevent all compression, you can use  "dont  com‐
	      press = *" (see below) instead of "refuse options = compress" to
	      avoid returning an error to a client that requests compression.

       dont compress
	      The "dont compress" option allows you to select filenames	 based
	      on wildcard patterns that should not be compressed during trans‐
	      fer. Compression is expensive in terms of CPU  usage  so	it  is
	      usually  good  to	 not try to compress files that won´t compress
	      well, such as already compressed files.

	      The "dont compress" option takes a space separated list of case-
	      insensitive  wildcard patterns. Any source filename matching one
	      of the patterns will not be compressed during transfer.

	      The default setting is

	      *.gz *.tgz *.zip *.z *.rpm *.deb *.iso *.bz2 *.tbz

AUTHENTICATION STRENGTH
       The authentication protocol used in rsync is a 128 bit MD4 based	 chal‐
       lenge  response	system. Although I believe that no one has ever demon‐
       strated a brute-force break of this sort of system you  should  realize
       that  this  is  not  a  "military  strength" authentication system.  It
       should be good enough for most purposes but  if	you  want  really  top
       quality security then I recommend that you run rsync over ssh.

       Also note that the rsync server protocol does not currently provide any
       encryption of the data that is transferred over the link. Only  authen‐
       tication is provided. Use ssh as the transport if you want encryption.

       Future  versions of rsync may support SSL for better authentication and
       encryption, but that is still being investigated.

EXAMPLES
       A simple rsyncd.conf file that allow anonymous rsync to a ftp  area  at
       /home/ftp would be:

       [ftp]
	       path = /home/ftp
	       comment = ftp export area

       A more sophisticated example would be:

       uid = nobody
       gid = nobody
       use chroot = no
       max connections = 4
       syslog facility = local5
       pid file = /var/run/rsyncd.pid

       [ftp]
	       path = /var/ftp/pub
	       comment = whole ftp area (approx 6.1 GB)

       [sambaftp]
	       path = /var/ftp/pub/samba
	       comment = Samba ftp area (approx 300 MB)

       [rsyncftp]
	       path = /var/ftp/pub/rsync
	       comment = rsync ftp area (approx 6 MB)

       [sambawww]
	       path = /public_html/samba
	       comment = Samba WWW pages (approx 240 MB)

       [cvs]
	       path = /data/cvs
	       comment = CVS repository (requires authentication)
	       auth users = tridge, susan
	       secrets file = /etc/rsyncd.secrets

       The /etc/rsyncd.secrets file would look something like this:

       tridge:mypass
       susan:herpass

FILES
       /etc/rsyncd.conf

SEE ALSO
       rsync(1)

DIAGNOSTICS
BUGS
       The  rsync  server  does	 not  send  all types of error messages to the
       client. this means a client may be  mystified  as  to  why  a  transfer
       failed. The error will have been logged by syslog on the server.

       Please  report  bugs!  The  rsync  bug  tracking	 system	 is  online at
       http://rsync.samba.org/

VERSION
       This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync

CREDITS
       rsync is distributed under the GNU public license.  See the file	 COPY‐
       ING for details.

       The primary ftp site for rsync is ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync.

       A WEB site is available at http://rsync.samba.org/

       We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.

       This  program  uses  the	 zlib compression library written by Jean-loup
       Gailly and Mark Adler.

THANKS
       Thanks to Warren Stanley for his original idea and patch for the	 rsync
       server.	Thanks	to Karsten Thygesen for his many suggestions and docu‐
       mentation!

AUTHOR
       rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.	 They  may  be
       contacted    via	   email    at	 tridge@samba.org   and	  Paul.Macker‐
       ras@cs.anu.edu.au

				  12 Feb 1999			rsyncd.conf(5)
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