How to Copy Files Between Linux Servers Using Rsync?

rsync is a file synchronization utility that helps you copy or transfer files locally or to a remote server. It transfers only the differences between source and destination, making repeated syncs fast and bandwidth-efficient.

Installation

rsync is pre-installed on most Linux distributions. If not:

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install rsync

# CentOS/RHEL
sudo yum install rsync

Basic syntax

rsync [options] source destination

Local copy

rsync -av /source/directory/ /destination/directory/

The trailing slash on the source means "copy the contents of this directory". Without it, the directory itself is copied.

Copy to a remote server

rsync -av /local/path/ username@remote-server:/remote/path/

Copy from a remote server

rsync -av username@remote-server:/remote/path/ /local/path/

Commonly used options

Option	Description
`-a`	Archive mode: preserves permissions, timestamps, symlinks, etc.
`-v`	Verbose output
`-z`	Compress data during transfer
`-P`	Show progress and keep partial files
`--delete`	Delete files at the destination that no longer exist at the source
`-n` or `--dry-run`	Simulate the transfer without making changes
`-e ssh`	Use SSH as the transport (default for remote transfers)

Sync with delete (mirror)

To make the destination an exact mirror of the source (removing files deleted from source):

rsync -av --delete /source/ username@remote-server:/destination/

Using a specific SSH key

rsync -av -e "ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519" /local/path/ username@remote-server:/remote/path/

Using a non-default SSH port

rsync -av -e "ssh -p 2222" /local/path/ username@remote-server:/remote/path/

Dry run first

Always test with --dry-run before a destructive sync:

rsync -av --delete --dry-run /source/ username@remote-server:/destination/

Scheduling with cron

To run a nightly backup at 2:00 AM:

0 2 * * * rsync -az --delete /var/www/ backup-server:/backups/www/

How to copy files between Linux servers using rsync