notes

rsync flags I keep looking up

2026-09-21

Every time I copy a photo archive I end up reading the man page again, so here is the short version.

rsync -aHAX --info=progress2 --partial src/ dst/

• -a keeps permissions, times and symlinks.
• -HAX adds hard links, ACLs and extended attributes.
• --partial keeps half-copied files, which matters over a flaky link.
• The trailing slash on src/ copies the contents, not the directory itself.

Add -n first. Always.