synchronize files from remote server with rsync

Question

I have a question about rsync. I have two servers. I would like to run a rsync command on server 1 that synchronizes all data/files on server 2 to my server. Say I have on server 2 a folder /var/www/html/hello/* All files should be synchronized with the permissions from server 2 to server 1 but the command must be executed on server 1. How can I do this with rsync ?

Answer 1

rsync -ai user2@server2:/var/www/html/hello/ local/directory/hello

This would connect using SSH to server2 as user user2. This user must have access to all the files and directories that will be copied. The directory contents of /var/www/html/hello/ will be replicated under local/directory/hello on the local machine.

Note the trailing / on the source directory path. Without this, you would put the files and directories into a directory called hello in the destination folder.

If you add --delete, you would additionally remove local files in the destination directory that are not available on the source side.

The -i option turns on a itemisation of the things that are getting transferred. Some people like using -v instead of -i. The -a option is the option that preserves as much as possible of permissions and other meta-data, and also enables recursive replication of files in subdirectories.

Answer 2

rsync behaves like a simple copy programm. So syncing from remote is like (without additional options like recourse or permissions ...)

rsync remoteuser@remoteserver:/var/www/html/hello/* /to/local/folder/

This will copy the remote files - not folders to your local folder.

Use the options -avz to archive a kind of backup (include permissions and so on):

rsync -avz remoteSource localDestination

For more options see man page ...

Edit 1:

Please consider first comment from kusalananda about using the tailing * at source folder.