Mirroring a website using RSYNC involves the use of the RSYNC utility, a powerful file and folder replication tool. RSYNC is renowned for its versatility, capable of mirroring entire file systems, maintaining file permissions, and supporting incremental backups to save bandwidth. It’s an open-source utility that can be used on UNIX and Linux based systems, and there are versions of the program available for Windows (Cygwin or WSL for example).
Here’s a step-by-step guide about how one might set up a basic website mirror using RSYNC:
1. You will first need to make sure that you have SSH access to both the source and destination server. RSYNC works via the SSH protocol so SSH keys must be set up between the two servers to facilitate secure, passwordless transfers.
1. Install RSYNC on both servers. If it’s a UNIX or Linux system, the command should look something like this: `sudo apt-get install rsync`.
1. After RSYNC is installed, you’re ready to start mirroring. The general command structure in command-line for RSYNC looks like
`rsync -az -e ssh user@source-server:/path/to/source /path/to/destination`.This command tells RSYNC to mirror the source directory on the source server into the destination directory on the destination server. The `-az` flags tell RSYNC to archive (preserving all file properties and permissions) and compress the data during the transfer to save bandwidth.
Some real-world use case examples could include a continuous backup of a website where any changes to the source server are immediately reflected on the destination server, or simply as a one-time event to migrate a website to a new server.
Please remember this is a basic example. You might need to manage some different options, like excluding certain directory or files, creating a log of the operations, or handling how delete files are managed with the —delete option. More details can be found in manual (man rsync).
Sources:
- “Rsync (Remote Sync): 10 Practical Examples of Rsync Command in Linux.” TecMint, www.tecmint.com/rsync-local-remote-file-synchronization-commands/.
- “How to Use Rsync for Local and Remote Data Transfer and Synchronization.” DigitalOcean, www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-rsync-to-sync-local-and-remote-directories-on-a-vps.
Usage of RSYNC for mirroring a website might appear technical, but with the myriad of detailed guides and the RSYNC manual itself (accessed by typing `man rsync` into the terminal), it should be straightforward for anyone familiar with command-line operations.
