Rsync: Copy files from and to your server

Rsync is a fast, versatile, remote (and local) file-copying tool.

The rsync command is a very handy and straightforward tool if you want to copy files/folders between your machine and a remote one.

Let’s see some use cases:

Copying local files/folders to a remote computer

Let’s say we have a folder named foo and we want to copy it on the user’s home folder on the remote machine:

-a option: archive mode; equals -rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-X)

-v option: verbose output

-z option: compress files

Note that when you execute the command, it will ask for the remote user’s password.

Copying remote files/folders to local storage

Now, let’s say that you want to copy the remote folder named foo to your local storage:

Non-standard SSH port

If the remote server’s sshd port is not the standard one, you can specify the correct one using the -e option.

e.g. for port 12345: