I have 2 folders that are synced using rsync. Right now if I delete a file in the source folder, the destination folder still retains that file. Is there a way to get rsync to delete files if they were deleting at the source?
I could not find anything in the man page…not sure if I’m missing something or if that feature just doesn’t exist.
tux93
June 11, 2011, 5:58pm
2
I think thats what you’re searching for:
--delete
This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the receiving side (ones that aren’t on the sending side), but only for the directories that are being synchronized. You
must have asked rsync to send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard for the directory’s contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not the files’ parent directory. Files that are excluded from the transfer are also excluded from
being deleted unless you use the --delete-excluded option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES sec‐
tion).
Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless --recursive was enabled. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will also occur when --dirs (-d) is enabled, but only
for directories whose contents are being copied.
This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea to first try a run using the --dry-run option (-n) to see what files are going to be deleted.
If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to prevent temporary filesystem fail‐
ures (such as NFS errors) on the sending side from causing a massive deletion of files on the destination. You can override this with the --ignore-errors option.
The --delete option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options without conflict, as well as --delete-excluded. However, if none of the --delete-WHEN options are
specified, rsync will choose the --delete-during algorithm when talking to rsync 3.0.0 or newer, and the --delete-before algorithm when talking to an older rsync. See also
--delete-delay and --delete-after.
Have a look also at Luckybackup. This is a brilliant front end to rsync which lets you trial configurations in “dry run” mode so you can play with options without risk and acts as a tutor tool.
If I’m using the command below, what would the syntax be when I add the delete option?
rsync -art /hd/1/www/abacabb /root/Desktop/rsync_cache/txhttp/
tux93
June 13, 2011, 10:01pm
5
rsync -art --delete /hd/1/www/abacabb /root/Desktop/rsync_cache/txhttp/