Introduction Rsync, which stands for "remote sync", is a remote and local file synchronization tool. It uses an algorithm that minimizes the amount of data copied by only moving the portions of files that have changed. In this guide, we will cover the basic usage of this powerful utility. We will be using an Ubuntu 12.04 VPS in the examples, but you can use any modern Linux distribution to follow along. What Is Rsync? Rsync is a very flexible network-enabled syncing tool. It can also refer to the network protocol developed to utilize this tool. When we reference rsync in this guide, we are mainly referring to the utility, and not the protocol. Due to its ubiquity on Linux and Unix-like systems and its popularity as a tool for system scripts, it is included on most Linux distributions by default. Basic Syntax The basic syntax of rsync is very straight forward, and operates in a way that is similar to ssh, scp, and cp. We will create two test directories and some test files with the following commands: cd ~ mkdir dir1 mkdir dir2 touch dir1/file{1..100} We now have a directory called dir1 with 100 empty files in it. ls dir1 file1 file18 file27 file36 file45 file54 file63 file72 file81 file90 file10 file19 file28 file37 file46 file55 file64 file73 file82 file91 file100 file2 file29 file38 file47 file56 file65 file74 file83 file92 file11 file20 file3 file39 file48 file57 file66 file75 file84 file93 file12 file21 file30 file4 file49 file58 file67 file76 file85 file94 file13 file22 file31 file40 file5 file59 file68 file77 file86…