Linux Command: rsync
Efficient file synchronization with incremental transfer and delta encoding
Terminal — Linux
Command
$
rsync -avzP --delete /var/www/ user@backup:/backups/www/
Output
sending incremental file list
index.php
2,145 100% 1.23MB/s 0:00:00 (xfr#1, to-chk=0/1)
sent 2,231 bytes received 35 bytes 1,510.67 bytes/sec
total size is 2,145 speedup is 0.95
rsync is the standard tool for fast, incremental file transfers over SSH. The -avzP --delete combo preserves permissions, compresses on the wire, shows progress, and mirrors the source exactly.
Use it for backups, deployments, and syncing large directories without re-transferring unchanged files.