Learning Rsync On Rocky

Linux (English version)

A book from the Documentation Team

Version : 2025/01/05

Rocky Documentation Team

Copyright © 2023 The Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation

 Table of contents

Table of contents

1. Licence 3

2. Backup Brief 4

2.1 rsync in brief 5

2.1.1 Basic Principles and Features 8

3. Preface 10

3.1 Environment Description 11

3.2 Demonstration based on SSH protocol 11

3.2.1 pull/download 11

3.2.2 push/upload 12

4. Demonstration based on rsync protocol 14

4.1 pull/download 16

4.2 push/upload 16

5. /etc/rsyncd.conf 18

5.1 Recommended configuration 18

6. Foreword 20

6.1 SSH protocol password-free authentication login 20

6.2 rsync protocol password-free authentication login 21

7. Compile and install 23

7.1 Kernel parameter adjustment 24

7.2 Related commands 24

7.3 Demonstration of inotifywait command 25

7.4 Combination of inotifywait and rsync 26

8. Brief 28

8.1 Environment preparation 28

8.2 Rocky Linux 8 install unison 28

8.3 Fedora 34 install unison 29

8.4 Demo 30

8.4.1 Configure Rocky Linux 8 30

8.4.2 Configure Fedora 34 30

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 1. Licence

1. Licence

RockyLinux offers Linux courseware for trainers or people wishing to learn how to
administer a Linux system on their own.

RockyLinux materials are published under Creative Commons-BY-SA. This means

you are free to share and transform the material, while respecting the author's
rights.

BY : Attribution. You must cite the name of the original author.

SA : Share Alike.

• Creative Commons-BY-SA licence : https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/

4.0/

The documents and their sources are freely downloadable from:

• https://docs.rockylinux.org

• https://github.com/rocky-linux/documentation

Our media sources are hosted at github.com. You'll find the source code repository
where the version of this document was created.

From these sources, you can generate your own personalized training material
using mkdocs. You will find instructions for generating your document here.

How can I contribute to the documentation project?

You'll find all the information you need to join us on our git project home page.

We wish you all a pleasant reading and hope you enjoy the content.

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 2. Backup Brief

2. Backup Brief

What is a backup?

Backup refers to the duplication of data in the file system or database. In the event
of an error or disaster, the effective data of the system can be restored in a timely
manner and normal operation.

What are the backup methods?

• Full backup: refers to a one-time copy of all files, folders or data in the hard disk
or database. (Pros: the best, can recover data faster. Disadvantages: take up a
larger hard disk space.)

• Incremental backup: refers to the backup of the data updated after the last full
backup or incremental backup. The process is like this, such as a full backup on
the first day; a backup of the newly added data on the second day, as opposed to a
full backup; on the third day, a backup of the newly added data on the basis of the
second day, relative to the next day, and so on.

• Differential backup: Refers to the backup of the changed files after the full
backup. For example, a full backup on the first day; a backup of the new data on
the second day; a backup of the new data from the second day to the third day on
the third day; and a backup of all the new data from the second day to the fourth
day on the fourth day, and so on.

• Selective backup: Refers to backing up a part of the system.

• Cold backup: refers to the backup when the system is in shutdown or

maintenance state. The backed up data is exactly the same as the data in the
system during this period.

• Hot backup: Refers to the backup when the system is in normal operation. As the
data in the system is updated at any time, the backed-up data has a certain lag
relative to the real data of the system.

• Remote backup: refers to backing up data in another geographic location to avoid

data loss and service interruption caused by fire, natural disasters, theft, etc.

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 2.1 rsync in brief

2.1 rsync in brief

On a server, I backed up the first partition to the second partition, which is

commonly known as "Local backup." The specific backup tools are tar , dd , dump ,
cp , etc. can be achieved. Although the data is backed up on this server, if the
hardware fails to boot up properly, the data will not be retrieved. In order to solve
this problem with the local backup, we introduced another kind of backup ---
"remote backup".

Some people will say, can't I just use the tar or cp command on the first server
and send it to the second server via scp or sftp ?

In a production environment, the amount of data is relatively large. First of all, tar
or cp consumes a lot of time and occupies system performance. Transmission via
scp or sftp also occupies a lot of network bandwidth, which is not allowed in the
actual production environment. Secondly, these commands or tools need to be
manually entered by the administrator and need to be combined with the crontab
of the scheduled task. However, the time set by crontab is not easy to grasp, and it
is not appropriate for data to be backed up if the time is too short or too long.

Therefore, there needs to be a data backup in the production environment which

needs to meet the following requirements:

1. Backups transmitted over the network

2. Real-time data file synchronization

3. Less occupancy of system resources and higher efficiency

rsync appears to meet the above needs. It uses the GNU open source license
agreement. It is a fast incremental backup tool. The latest version is 3.2.3
(2020-08-06). You can visit the Official website for more information.

In terms of platform support, most Unix-like systems are supported, whether it is

GNU/Linux or BSD. In addition, there are related rsync under the Windows
platform, such as cwRsync.

The original rsync was maintained by the Australian programmer Andrew Tridgell
(shown in Figure 1 below), and now it has been maintained by Wayne Davison

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 2.1 rsync in brief

(shown in Figure 2 below) ) For maintenance, you can go to github project address
to get the information you want.

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 2.1 rsync in brief

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 2.1.1 Basic Principles and Features

note

rsync itself is only an incremental backup tool and does not have the function of real-time data synchronization (it needs
to be supplemented by other programs). In addition, synchronization is one-way. If you want to realize two-way
synchronization, you need to cooperate with other tools.

2.1.1 Basic Principles and Features

How does rsync achieve efficient one-way data synchronization backup?

The core of rsync is its Checksum algorithm. For more information, you can go
to How Rsync works and The rsync algorithm. This section is beyond the author's
competence and will not be covered too much.

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 2.1.1 Basic Principles and Features

The characteristics of rsync are:

• The entire directory can be updated recursively;

• Can selectively retain file synchronization attributes, such as hard link, soft link,
owner, group, corresponding permissions, modification time, etc., and can retain
some of the attributes;

• Support two protocols for transmission, one is ssh protocol, the other is rsync
protocol

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 3. Preface

3. Preface

rsync needs to perform user authentication before data synchronization. There

are two protocol methods for authentication: SSH protocol and rsync
protocol (the default port of rsync protocol is 873)

• SSH protocol verification login method: use SSH protocol as the basis for user
identity authentication (that is, use the system user and password of GNU/Linux
itself for verification), and then perform data synchronization.

• rsync protocol verification login method: use rsync protocol for user identity
authentication (non-GNU/Linux system users, similar to vsftpd virtual users), and
then perform data synchronization.

Before the specific demonstration of rsync synchronization, you need to use the
rsync command. In Rocky Linux 8, the rsync rpm package is installed by default,
and the version is 3.1.3-12, as follows:

[root@Rocky ~]# rpm -qa|grep rsync

rsync-3.1.3-12.el8.x86_64

Basic format: rsync [options] original location target location

Commonly used options:
-a: archive mode, recursive and preserves the attributes of the file object,
which is equivalent to -rlptgoD (without -H, -A, -X)
-v: Display detailed information about the synchronization process
-z: compress when transferring files
-H: Keep hard link files
-A: retain ACL permissions
-X: retain chattr permissions
-r: Recursive mode, including all files in the directory and subdirectories
-l: still reserved for symbolic link files
-p: Permission to retain file attributes
-t: time to retain file attributes
-g: retain the group belonging to the file attribute (only for super users)
-o: retain the owner of the file attributes (only for super users)
-D: Keep device files and other special files

The author's personal use: rsync -avz original location target location

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 3.1 Environment Description

3.1 Environment Description

Item Description

Rocky Linux 8(Server) 192.168.100.4/24

Fedora 34(client) 192.168.100.5/24

You can use Fedora 34 to upload and download

graph LR;
RockyLinux8-->|pull/download|Fedora34;
Fedora34-->|push/upload|RockyLinux8;

You can also use Rocky Linux 8 to upload and download

graph LR;
RockyLinux8-->|push/upload|Fedora34;
Fedora34-->|pull/download|RockyLinux8;

3.2 Demonstration based on SSH protocol

tip

Here, both Rocky Linux 8 and Fedora 34 use the root user to log in. Fedora 34 is the client and Rocky Linux 8 is the server.

3.2.1 pull/download

Since it is based on the SSH protocol, we first create a user in the server:

[root@Rocky ~]# useradd testrsync

[root@Rocky ~]# passwd testrsync

On the client side, we pull/download it, and the file on the server is /rsync/aabbcc

[root@fedora ~]# rsync -avz [email protected]:/rsync/aabbcc /root

[email protected] ' s password:
receiving incremental file list
aabbcc
sent 43 bytes received 85 bytes 51.20 bytes/sec
total size is 0 speedup is 0.00
[root@fedora ~]# cd

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 3.2.2 push/upload

[root@fedora ~]# ls
aabbcc

The transfer was successful.

tip

If the server's SSH port is not the default 22, you can specify the port in a similar way--- rsync -avz -e 'ssh -p [port]' .

3.2.2 push/upload

[root@fedora ~]# touch fedora

[root@fedora ~]# rsync -avz /root/* [email protected]:/rsync/
[email protected] ' s password:
sending incremental file list
anaconda-ks.cfg
fedora
rsync: mkstemp " /rsync/.anaconda-ks.cfg.KWf7JF " failed: Permission denied
(13)
rsync: mkstemp " /rsync/.fedora.fL3zPC " failed: Permission denied (13)
sent 760 bytes received 211 bytes 277.43 bytes/sec
total size is 883 speedup is 0.91
rsync error: some files/attrs were not transferred (see previous errors) (code
23) at main.c(1330) [sender = 3.2.3]

Prompt permission denied, how to deal with it?

First check the permissions of the /rsync/ directory. Obviously, there is no "w"
permission. We can use setfacl to give permission:

[root@Rocky ~ ] # ls -ld /rsync/

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 November 2 15:05 /rsync/

[root@Rocky ~ ] # setfacl -mu:testrsync:rwx /rsync/

[root@Rocky ~ ] # getfacl /rsync/
getfacl: Removing leading ' / ' from absolute path names
# file: rsync/
# owner: root
# group: root
user::rwx
user:testrsync:rwx
group::rx

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 3.2.2 push/upload

mask::rwx
other::rx

Try again, success!

[root@fedora ~ ] # rsync -avz /root/* [email protected]:/rsync/

[email protected] ' s password:
sending incremental file list
anaconda-ks.cfg
fedora
sent 760 bytes received 54 bytes 180.89 bytes/sec
total size is 883 speedup is 1.08

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 4. Demonstration based on rsync protocol

4. Demonstration based on rsync protocol

In vsftpd, there are virtual users (impersonated users customized by the

administrator) because it is not safe to use anonymous users and local users. We
know that a server based on the SSH protocol must ensure that there is a system of
users. When there are many synchronization requirements, it may be necessary to
create many users. This obviously does not meet the GNU/Linux operation and
maintenance standards (the more users, the more insecure), in rsync, for security
reasons, there is an rsync protocol authentication login method.

How to do it?

Just write the corresponding parameters and values in the configuration file. In
Rocky Linux 8, you need to manually create the file /etc/rsyncd.conf.

[root@Rocky ~]# touch /etc/rsyncd.conf

[root@Rocky ~]# vim /etc/rsyncd.conf

Some parameters and values of this file are as follows, here has more parameter
descriptions:

Item Description

address = 192.168.100.4 The IP address that rsync listens on by default

port = 873 rsync default listening port

pid file = /var/run/ File location of process pid

rsyncd.pid

log file = /var/log/ File location of the log

rsyncd.log

[share] Share name

comment = rsync Remarks or description information

path = /rsync/ The system path location where it is located

read only = yes yes means read only, no means read and write

dont compress = *.gz Which file types do not compress it

*.gz2 *.zip

auth users = li Enable virtual users and define what a virtual user is called. Need to create it yourself

secrets file = /etc/ Used to specify the location of the virtual user's password file, which must end in .db. The
rsyncd_users.db content format of the file is "Username: Password", one per line

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 4. Demonstration based on rsync protocol

tip

The permission of the password file must be 600.

Write some file content to /etc/rsyncd.conf, and write the user name and password
to /etc/rsyncd_users.db, the permission is 600

[root@Rocky ~]# cat /etc/rsyncd.conf

address = 192.168.100.4
port = 873
pid file = /var/run/rsyncd.pid
log file = /var/log/rsyncd.log
[share]
comment = rsync
path = /rsync/
read only = yes
dont compress = *.gz *.bz2 *.zip
auth users = li
secrets file = /etc/rsyncd_users.db
[root@Rocky ~]# ll /etc/rsyncd_users.db
-rw------- 1 root root 9 November 2 16:16 /etc/rsyncd_users.db
[root@Rocky ~]# cat /etc/rsyncd_users.db
li:13579

You may need to dnf -y install rsync-daemon before you can start the service:
systemctl start rsyncd.service

[root@Rocky ~]# systemctl start rsyncd.service

[root@Rocky ~]# netstat -tulnp
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address
State PID/Program name
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:22 0.0.0.0:*
LISTEN 691/sshd
tcp 0 0 192.168.100.4:873 0.0.0.0:*
LISTEN 4607/rsync
tcp6 0 0 :::22 :::*
LISTEN 691/sshd
udp 0 0 127.0.0.1:323 0.
0.0.0:* 671/chronyd
udp6 0 0 ::
1:323 :::* 671/chronyd

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 4.1 pull/download

4.1 pull/download

Create a file in the server for verification: [root@Rocky]# touch /rsync/rsynctest.txt

The client does the following:

[root@fedora ~]# rsync -avz [email protected]::share /root

Password:
receiving incremental file list
./
rsynctest.txt
sent 52 bytes received 195 bytes 7.16 bytes/sec
total size is 883 speedup is 3.57
[root@fedora ~]# ls
aabbcc anaconda-ks.cfg fedora rsynctest.txt

success! In addition to the above writing based on the rsync protocol, you can also
write like this: rsync://[email protected]/share

4.2 push/upload

[root@fedora ~]# touch /root/fedora.txt

[root@fedora ~]# rsync -avz /root/* [email protected]::share
Password:
sending incremental file list
rsync: [sender] read error: Connection reset by peer (104)
rsync error: error in socket IO (code 10) at io.c(784) [sender = 3.2.3]

You are prompted that the reading error is related to the "read only = yes" of the
server . Change it to "no" and restart the service
[root@Rocky ~]# systemctl restart rsyncd.service

Try again, prompting you permission denied:

[root@fedora ~]# rsync -avz /root/* [email protected]::share

Password:
sending incremental file list
fedora.txt
rsync: mkstemp " /.fedora.txt.hxzBIQ " (in share) failed: Permission denied
(13)
sent 206 bytes received 118 bytes 92.57 bytes/sec
total size is 883 speedup is 2.73

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 4.2 push/upload

rsync error: some files/attrs were not transferred (see previous errors) (code
23) at main.c(1330) [sender = 3.2.3]

Our virtual user here is li, which is mapped to the system user nobody by default.
Of course, you can change it to other system users. In other words, nobody does
not have write permission to the /rsync/ directory. Of course, we can use
[root@Rocky ~]# setfacl -mu:nobody:rwx /rsync/ , try again, and succeed.

[root@fedora ~]# rsync -avz /root/* [email protected]::share

Password:
sending incremental file list
fedora.txt
sent 206 bytes received 35 bytes 96.40 bytes/sec
total size is 883 speedup is 3.66

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 5. /etc/rsyncd.conf

5. /etc/rsyncd.conf

In the previous article rsync demo 02 we introduced some basic parameters. This
article is to supplement other parameters.

Parameters Description

fake super = yes yes means that you do not need the daemon to run as root to store the complete attributes of the file.

uid = user id

gid = Two parameters are used to specify the user and group used to transfer files when running the rsync
daemon as root. The default is nobody

use chroot = yes Whether the root directory needs to be locked before transmission, yes yes, no no. In order to
increase security, rsync defaults to yes.

max connections = 4 The maximum number of connections allowed, the default value is 0, which means that there is no
restriction

lock file = /var/run/ The specified lock file, which is associated with the "max connections" parameter
rsyncd.lock

exclude = Exclude directories that do not need to be transferred

lost+found/

transfer logging = Whether to enable ftp-like log format to record rsync uploads and downloads
yes

timeout = 900 Specify the timeout period. If no data is transmitted within the specified time, rsync will exit directly.
The unit is seconds, the default value is 0 means never time out

ignore nonreadable Whether to ignore files to which the user does not have access rights
= yes

motd file = /etc/ Used to specify the path of the message file. By default, there is no motd file. This message is the
rsyncd/rsyncd.motd welcome message displayed when the user logs in.

hosts allow = Used to specify which IP or network segment clients are allowed to access. You can fill in the ip,
10.1.1.1/24 network segment, host name, host under the domain, and separate multiples with spaces. Allow
everyone to access by default

hosts deny = Which ip or network segment clients specified by the user are not allowed to access. If hosts allow
10.1.1.20 and hosts deny have the same matching result, the client cannot access eventually. If the client's
address is neither in the hosts allow nor in the hosts deny, the client is allowed to access. By default,
there is no such parameter

auth users = li Enable virtual users, multiple users are separated by commas in English state

syslog facility = Define the level of system log. These values can be filled in: auth, authpriv, cron, daemon, ftp, kern,
daemon lpr, mail, news, security, syslog, user, uucp, local0, local1, local2 local3, local4, local5, local6 and
local7. The default value is daemon

5.1 Recommended configuration

/etc/rsyncd.conf

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 5.1 Recommended configuration

uid = nobody
gid = nobody
address = 192.168.100.4
use chroot = yes
max connections = 10
syslog facility = daemon
pid file = /var/run/rsyncd.pid
log file = /var/log/rsyncd.log
lock file = /var/run/rsyncd.lock
[file]
comment = rsync
path = /rsync/
read only = no
dont compress = *.gz *.bz2 *.zip
auth users = li
secrets file = /etc/rsyncd users.db

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 6. Foreword

6. Foreword

From rsync Brief Description we know that rsync is an incremental synchronization

tool. Every time the rsync command is executed, data can be synchronized once,
but data cannot be synchronized in real time. How to do it?

With inotify-tools, this program tool can realize one-way real-time synchronization.
Since it is real-time data synchronization, the prerequisite is to log in without
password authentication.

Regardless of whether it is rsync protocol or SSH protocol, both can

achieve password-free authentication login.

6.1 SSH protocol password-free authentication login

First, generate a public key and private key pair on the client, and keep pressing
Enter after typing the command. The key pair is saved in the /root/.ssh/ directory.

[root@fedora ~]# ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048

Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/root/.ssh/id_rsa):
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /root/.ssh/id_rsa
Your public key has been saved in /root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
The key fingerprint is:
SHA256: TDA3tWeRhQIqzTORLaqy18nKnQOFNDhoAsNqRLo1TMg root@fedora
The key's randomart image is:
+---[RSA 2048]----+
|O+. +o+o. .+. |
|BEo oo*....o. |
|*o+o..*.. ..o |
|.+..o. = o |
|o o S |
|. o |
| o +. |
|....=. |
| .o.o. |
+----[SHA256]-----+

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 6.2 rsync protocol password-free authentication login

Then, use the scp command to upload the public key file to the server. For
example, I upload this public key to the user testrsync

[root@fedora ~]# scp -P 22 /root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub [email protected]:/home/

testrsync/

[root@Rocky ~]# cat /home/testrsync/id_rsa.pub >> /home/testrsync/.ssh/

authorized_keys

Try to log in without secret authentication, success!

[root@fedora ~]# ssh -p 22 [email protected]

Last login: Tue Nov 2 21:42:44 2021 from 192.168.100.5
[testrsync@Rocky ~]$

tip

The server configuration file /etc/ssh/sshd_config should be opened PubkeyAuthentication yes

6.2 rsync protocol password-free authentication login

On the client side, the rsync service prepares an environment variable for the
system-RSYNC_PASSWORD, which is empty by default, as shown below:

[root@fedora ~]# echo "$RSYNC_PASSWORD"

[root@fedora ~]#

If you want to achieve password-free authentication login, you only need to assign
a value to this variable. The value assigned is the password previously set for the
virtual user li. At the same time, declare this variable as a global variable.

[root@Rocky ~]# cat /etc/rsyncd_users.db

li:13579

[root@fedora ~]# export RSYNC_PASSWORD=13579

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 6.2 rsync protocol password-free authentication login

Try it, success! No new files appear here, so the list of transferred files is not
displayed.

[root@fedora ~]# rsync -avz [email protected]::share /root/

receiving incremental file list
./

sent 30 bytes received 193 bytes 148.67 bytes/sec

total size is 883 speedup is 3.96

tip

You can write this variable into /etc/profile to make it take effect permanently. The content is: export RSYNC_PASSWORD=13579

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 7. Compile and install

7. Compile and install

Perform the following operations in the server. In your environment, some

dependent packages may be missing. Install them by using:
dnf -y install autoconf automake libtool

[root@Rocky ~]# wget -c https://github.com/inotify-tools/inotify-tools/archive/

refs/tags/3.21.9.6.tar.gz
[root@Rocky ~]# tar -zvxf 3.21.9.6.tar.gz -C /usr/local/src/
[root@Rocky ~]# cd /usr/local/src/inotify-tools-3.21.9.6/
[root@Rocky /usr/local/src/inotify-tools-3.21.9.6]# ./autogen.sh && \
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/inotify-tools && \
make && \
make install
...
[root@Rocky ~]# ls /usr/local/inotify-tools/bin/
inotifywait inotifywatch

Append the environment variable PATH, write it to the configuration file and let it
take effect permanently.

[root@Rocky ~]# vim /etc/profile

...
PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/inotify-tools/bin/
[root@Rocky ~]# . /etc/profile

Why not use the inotify-tools RPM package of the EPEL repository? And the
way to use source code to compile and install?

The author personally believes that remote data transmission is a matter of

efficiency, especially in a production environment, where there are a large number
of files to be synchronized and a single file is particularly large. In addition, the
new version will have some bug fixes and function expansions, and perhaps the
transmission efficiency of the new version will be higher, so I recommend installing
inotify-tools by source code. Of course, this is the author's personal suggestion, not
every user must follow.

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 7.1 Kernel parameter adjustment

7.1 Kernel parameter adjustment

You can adjust the kernel parameters according to the needs of the production
environment. By default, there are three files in /proc/sys/fs/inotity/

[root@Rocky ~]# cd /proc/sys/fs/inotify/

[root@Rocky /proc/sys/fs/inotify]# cat max_queued_events ;cat
max_user_instances ;cat max_user_watches
16384
128
28014

• max_queued_events-maximum monitor queue size, default 16384

• max_user_instances-the maximum number of monitoring instances, the default is

128

• max_user_watches-the maximum number of files monitored per instance, the

default is 8192

Write some parameters and values to /etc/sysctl.conf, examples are as follows.

Then use sysctl -p to make the files take effect

fs.inotify.max_queued_events = 16384
fs.inotify.max_user_instances = 1024
fs.inotify.max_user_watches = 1048576

7.2 Related commands

The inotify-tools tool has two commands, namely:

• inotifywait: for continuous monitoring, real-time output results. It is generally

used with the rsync incremental backup tool. Because it is a file system
monitoring, it can be used with a script. We will introduce the specific script
writing later.

• inotifywatch: for short-term monitoring, output results after the task is

completed.

inotifywait mainly has the following options:

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 7.3 Demonstration of inotifywait command

-m means continuous monitoring

-r Recursive monitoring
-q Simplify output information
-e specifies the event type of monitoring data, multiple event types are
separated by commas in English status

The event types are as follows:

Event Type Description

access Access to the contents of a file or directory

modify The contents of the file or directory are written

attrib The attributes of the file or directory are modified

close_write File or directory is opened in writable mode and then closed

close_nowrite File or directory is closed after being opened in read-only mode

close Regardless of the read/write mode, the file or directory is closed

open File or directory is opened

moved_to A file or directory is moved to the monitored directory

moved_from A file or directory is moved from the monitored directory

move There are files or directories that are moved to or removed from the monitoring directory

move_self The monitored file or directory has been moved

create There are files or directories created in the monitored directory

delete A file or directory in the monitored directory is deleted

delete_self The file or directory has been deleted

unmount File system containing unmounted files or directories

Example: [root@Rocky ~]# inotifywait -mrq -e create,delete /rsync/

7.3 Demonstration of inotifywait command

Type the command in the first terminal pts/0, and the window is locked after
pressing Enter, indicating that it is monitoring

[root@Rocky ~]# inotifywait -mrq -e create,delete /rsync/

In the second terminal pts/1, go to the /rsync/ directory and create a file.

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 7.4 Combination of inotifywait and rsync

[root@Rocky ~]# cd /rsync/

[root@Rocky /rsync]# touch inotify

Back to the first terminal pts/0, the output information is as follows:

[root@Rocky ~]# inotifywait -mrq -e create,delete /rsync/

/rsync/ CREATE inotify

7.4 Combination of inotifywait and rsync

tip

We are operating in Rocky Linux 8 server, using SSH protocol for demonstration.

For the password-free authentication login of the SSH protocol, please refer to
rsync password-free authentication login, which is not described here. An example
of the content of a bash script is as follows. You can add different options after the
command according to your needs to meet your needs. For example, you can also
add --delete after the rsync command.

#!/bin/bash
a="/usr/local/inotify-tools/bin/inotifywait -mrq -e modify,move,create,delete /
rsync/"
b="/usr/bin/rsync -avz /rsync/* [email protected]:/home/testfedora/"
$a | while read directory event file
do
$b &>> /tmp/rsync.log
done

[root@Rocky ~]# chmod +x rsync_inotify.sh

[root@Rocky ~]# bash /root/rsync_inotify.sh &

tip

When using the SSH protocol for data synchronization transmission, if the SSH service port of the target machine is not 22, you can
use a method similar to this—— b="/usr/bin/rsync -avz -e 'ssh -p [port-number]' /rsync/* [email protected]:/home/
testfedora/"

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 7.4 Combination of inotifywait and rsync

tip

If you want to start this script at boot [root@Rocky ~]# echo "bash /root/rsync_inotify.sh &" >> /etc/rc.local [root@Rocky ~]# chmod
+x /etc/rc.local

If you are using the rsync protocol for synchronization, you need to configure the
rsync service of the target machine, please refer to rsync demo 02, rsync
configuration file, rsync free Secret authentication login

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 8. Brief

8. Brief

As we mentioned earlier, one-way synchronization uses rsync + inotify-tools. In

some special usage scenarios, two-way synchronization may be required, which
requires inotify-tools + unison.

8.1 Environment preparation

• Both Rocky Linux 8 and Fedora 34 require source code compilation and
installation inotify-tools, which is not specifically expanded here.

• Both machines must be password-free login authentication, here we use the SSH
protocol for

• ocaml uses v4.12.0, unison uses v2.51.4.

After the environment is ready, it can be verified:

[root@Rocky ~]# inotifywa

inotifywait inotifywatch
[root@Rocky ~]# ssh -p 22 [email protected]
Last login: Thu Nov 4 13:13:42 2021 from 192.168.100.4
[testrsync@fedora ~]$

[root@fedora ~]# inotifywa

inotifywait inotifywatch
[root@fedora ~]# ssh -p 22 [email protected]
Last login: Wed Nov 3 22:07:18 2021 from 192.168.100.5
[testrsync@Rocky ~]$

tip

The configuration files of the two machines /etc/ssh/sshd_config should be opened PubkeyAuthentication yes

8.2 Rocky Linux 8 install unison

Ocaml is a programming language, and the bottom layer of unison depends on it.

[root@Rocky ~]# wget -c https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/archive/refs/tags/

4.12.0.tar.gz

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 8.3 Fedora 34 install unison

[root@Rocky ~]# tar -zvxf 4.12.0.tar.gz -C /usr/local/src/

[root@Rocky ~]# cd /usr/local/src/ocaml-4.12.0
[root@Rocky /usr/local/src/
ocaml-4.12.0]# ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/ocaml && make world opt && make
install
...
[root@Rocky ~]# ls /usr/local/ocaml/
bin lib man
[root@Rocky ~]# echo PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/ocaml/bin >> /etc/profile
[root@Rocky ~]# . /etc/profile

[root@Rocky ~]# wget -c https://github.com/bcpierce00/unison/archive/refs/tags/

v2.51.4.tar.gz
[root@Rocky ~]# tar -zvxf v2.51.4.tar.gz -C /usr/local/src/
[root@Rocky ~]# cd /usr/local/src/unison-2.51.4/
[root@Rocky /usr/local/src/unison-2.51.4]# make UISTYLE=txt
...
[root@Rocky /usr/local/src/unison-2.51.4]# ls src/unison
src/unison
[root@Rocky /usr/local/src/unison-2.51.4] cp -p src/unison /usr/local/bin

8.3 Fedora 34 install unison

The same operation.

[root@fedora ~]# wget -c https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/archive/refs/tags/

4.12.0.tar.gz
[root@feodora ~]# tar -zvxf 4.12.0.tar.gz -C /usr/local/src/
[root@fedora ~]# cd /usr/local/src/ocaml-4.12.0
[root@fedora /usr/local/src/ocaml-4.12.0]# ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/
ocaml && make world opt && make install
...
[root@fedora ~]# ls /usr/local/ocaml/
bin lib man
[root@fedora ~]# echo PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/ocaml/bin >> /etc/profile
[root@fedora ~]#. /etc/profile

[root@fedora ~]# wget -c https://github.com/bcpierce00/unison/archive/refs/

tags/v2.51.4.tar.gz
[root@fedora ~]# tar -zvxf v2.51.4.tar.gz -C /usr/local/src/
[root@fedora ~]# cd /usr/local/src/unison-2.51.4/
[root@fedora /usr/local/src/unison-2.51.4]# make UISTYLE=txt
...
[root@fedora /usr/local/src/unison-2.51.4]# ls src/unison

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 8.4 Demo

src/unison
[root@fedora /usr/local/src/unison-2.51.4]# cp -p src/unison /usr/local/bin

8.4 Demo

Our requirement is-Rocky Linux 8's /dir1/ directory is automatically

synchronized to Fedora 34's /dir2/ directory; at the same time, Fedora 34's /
dir2/ directory is automatically synchronized to Rocky Linux 8's /dir1/
directory

8.4.1 Configure Rocky Linux 8

[root@Rocky ~]# mkdir /dir1

[root@Rocky ~]# setfacl -m u:testrsync:rwx /dir1/
[root@Rocky ~]# vim /root/unison1.sh
#!/bin/bash
a="/usr/local/inotify-tools/bin/inotifywait -mrq -e create,delete,modify,move /
dir1/"
b="/usr/local/bin/unison -batch /dir1/ ssh://[email protected]//dir2"
$a | while read directory event file
do
$b &>> /tmp/unison1.log
done
[root@Rocky ~]# chmod +x /root/unison1.sh
[root@Rocky ~]# bash /root/unison1.sh &
[root@Rocky ~]# jobs -l

8.4.2 Configure Fedora 34

[root@fedora ~]# mkdir /dir2

[root@fedora ~]# setfacl -m u:testrsync:rwx /dir2/
[root@fedora ~]# vim /root/unison2.sh
#!/bin/bash
a="/usr/local/inotify-tools/bin/inotifywait -mrq -e create,delete,modify,move /
dir2/"
b="/usr/local/bin/unison -batch /dir2/ ssh://[email protected]//dir1"
$a | while read directory event file
do
$b &>> /tmp/unison2.log
done
[root@fedora ~]# chmod +x /root/unison2.sh

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 8.4.2 Configure Fedora 34

[root@fedora ~]# bash /root/unison2.sh &

[root@fedora ~]# jobs -l

tip

For two-way synchronization, the scripts of both machines must be started, otherwise an error will be reported.

tip

If you want to start this script at boot [root@Rocky ~]# echo "bash /root/unison1.sh &" >> /etc/rc.local
[root@Rocky ~]# chmod +x /etc/rc.local

tip

If you want to stop the corresponding process of this script, you can find it in the htop command and then kill

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 https://docs.rockylinux.org/

Learning Rsync On Rocky Linux (English version) Copyright © 2023 The Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation