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I have a /home/jbruni folder in a VPS running Ubuntu Server 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx).

I am about to turn this VPS off and move some things from it to a new VPS, also running the same Ubuntu version.

At the moment, I want to move all contents at /home/jbruni from the "old" VPS to the new one.

1) I want to preserve all file permission and ownership settings (I don't want to use any chown or chmod after the transfer). [Note: the new VPS already have the same users/groups with same UIDs/GIDs.]

2) I want to preserve all symlinks and hardlinks, although I believe there is not a single hardlink in this case. I have lots of symlinks, both for files and for folders, all pointing to locations inside the own /home/jbruni folder.

3) I'd really like to preserve date and times (mtime, atime, ctime). [If not possible, ok... it is not that bad.]

4) I don't have enough disk space to create a big file containing everything in the "old" VPS prior to transfering it (like a big tarball). Anyway, I may acquire this temporary extra space if really really needed.

So, what I want is like a "mirror" of the source folder. Is there a way to accomplish this easily? (Or even not so easily?)

Thank you!

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2 Answers 2

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7

rsync!

rsync -azv -e ssh ./localdirectory/ user@otherserver:/remote/dir

-a is the bad-boy here. It's actually a metaargument that calls -rlptgoD which means, amongst other things:

  • Recursive
  • Preserve symlinks
  • Preserve permissions
  • Preserve modification times
  • Preserve group
  • Preserve owner
  • And preserves special stuff

It won't preserve hardlinks because hardlinks are files (well it's actually a pointer to an inode that stores a filename - but that's what a regular file is too - when you make a hardlink you're just giving an inode an extra filename). This shouldn't be an issue for you because they're quite rare IMO.

-z will attempt to compress the data in the stream (speed things up a bit).

-v will make sure it's giving you plenty of output.

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  • Perfect! I am pleased to see it in action right now. Thanks a lot.
    – J. Bruni
    Oct 17, 2011 at 1:04
  • I just had to figure out from which server should I run the command. :-) It worths mentioning that it is from the source server, not the destination.
    – J. Bruni
    Oct 17, 2011 at 1:11
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    You can actually run it from either server. The command is <source> <target> so you could run user@otherserver:/remote/dir ./localdir/
    – Oli ♦
    Oct 17, 2011 at 1:22
  • Thanks for the improved answer containing the parameter details and for the extra tip in the previous comment. Very nice!
    – J. Bruni
    Oct 17, 2011 at 1:41
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I would use rsync for that. I believe it's installed by default in Ubuntu, but if it's not, then you can install it from the archives.

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