About

Imported from terminalskills/skills (skills/rsync/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add terminalskills/skills --skill rsync. Copyright stays with the author (Apache-2.0).

rsync

Name: rsync
Author: terminalskills

Overview

rsync is the standard tool for efficient file synchronization. It only transfers changed parts of files (delta transfer), supports SSH, handles permissions, and works for backups, deployments, and directory mirroring.

Instructions

Step 1: Basic Usage

# Sync local directories
rsync -avz source/ destination/
# -a = archive (preserves permissions, timestamps, symlinks)
# -v = verbose
# -z = compress during transfer

# Sync to remote server
rsync -avz ./dist/ deploy@server:/var/www/myapp/

# Sync from remote
rsync -avz deploy@server:/var/log/myapp/ ./logs/

# Dry run (show what would change without doing it)
rsync -avzn source/ destination/

Step 2: Common Patterns

# Deploy website (delete files on destination that don't exist in source)
rsync -avz --delete ./build/ deploy@server:/var/www/site/

# Backup with exclude
rsync -avz --exclude='node_modules' --exclude='.git' --exclude='.env' \
  /opt/myapp/ /backups/myapp/

# Incremental backup with hard links (space-efficient)
rsync -avz --link-dest=/backups/latest \
  /opt/myapp/ /backups/$(date +%Y%m%d)/
ln -snf /backups/$(date +%Y%m%d) /backups/latest

# Bandwidth limited (useful for large transfers)
rsync -avz --bwlimit=5000 source/ destination/    # 5000 KB/s

Step 3: Deployment Script

#!/bin/bash
# scripts/deploy.sh — Deploy app with rsync
SERVER="deploy@prod.example.com"
REMOTE_DIR="/var/www/myapp"

echo "Building..."
npm run build

echo "Syncing files..."
rsync -avz --delete \
  --exclude='node_modules' \
  --exclude='.env' \
  --exclude='.git' \
  ./dist/ ${SERVER}:${REMOTE_DIR}/

echo "Restarting service..."
ssh ${SERVER} "sudo systemctl restart myapp"

echo "Deploy complete!"

Guidelines

Always use -n (dry run) first when using --delete to avoid accidental data loss.
Trailing slash matters: source/ syncs contents, source syncs the directory itself.
For large transfers, add --progress to see per-file progress.
rsync over SSH is encrypted by default — safe for internet transfers.

Use it

Copy one of these into your project. Installing also returns the manifest and these snippets.

yaml

targets:
  - https://api.opensmartroute.ai/api/v1/registry/terminalskills-skills-rsync/manifest   # or paste the manifest below

Manifest

An Open Capability Manifest: the router reads it to know what this does, what it costs and when to pick it.

terminalskills-skills-rsync.ocm.jsonjson

{
  "ocm": "1",
  "id": "terminalskills-skills-rsync",
  "kind": "skill",
  "name": "rsync",
  "description": "Sync files and directories with rsync. Use when a user asks to copy files between servers, sync directories, create incremental backups, deploy files to a remote server, or mirror directories efficiently.",
  "publisher": "terminalskills",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "capabilities": {
    "domains": [
      "general"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "skill-md",
      "rsync",
      "sync",
      "backup",
      "deploy",
      "file-transfer",
      "skills-sh"
    ],
    "languages": [
      "en"
    ]
  },
  "quality_prior": 0.6,
  "examples": [
    "Sync files and directories with rsync. Use when a user asks to copy files between servers, sync directories, create incremental backups, deploy files to a remote server, or mirror directories efficiently."
  ],
  "primary": false,
  "metadata": {
    "source": {
      "provider": "skills.sh",
      "repository": "https://github.com/terminalskills/skills",
      "path": "skills/rsync/SKILL.md",
      "ref": "HEAD",
      "url": "https://github.com/terminalskills/skills/blob/HEAD/skills/rsync/SKILL.md",
      "key": "terminalskills/skills/skills/rsync/SKILL.md"
    },
    "compatibility": "Linux, macOS",
    "license": "Apache-2.0"
  },
  "instructions": "# rsync\n\n## Overview\n\nrsync is the standard tool for efficient file synchronization. It only transfers changed parts of files (delta transfer), supports SSH, handles permissions, and works for backups, deployments, and directory mirroring.\n\n## Instructions\n\n### Step 1: Basic Usage\n\n```bash\n# Sync local directories\nrsync -avz source/ destination/\n# -a = archive (preserves permissions, timestamps, symlinks)\n# -v = verbose\n# -z = compress during transfer\n\n# Sync to remote server\nrsync -avz ./dist/ deploy@server:/var/www/myapp/\n\n# Sync from remote\nrsync -avz deploy@server:/var/log/myapp/ ./logs/\n\n",
  "cost": {
    "context_tokens": 515
  }
}

Fetch it by URL: GET /api/v1/registry/terminalskills-skills-rsync/manifest?version=1.0.0

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