In order to properly answer the question, it is necessary to first understand what sudo and Rsync are, and what their roles are in maintaining and manipulating system files.
“Sudo” is a command in Unix and Linux-based systems, that means “Substitute User DO”. It allows users to run programs with the security privileges of another user, typically the superuser, or root user. Sudo is often needed when you’re trying to make changes that would affect the whole system, or to run commands that require higher system rights(1).
On the other hand, “Rsync” stands for “Remote Sync”. Rsync is a command-line tool that synchronizes files and folders from one location to another while minimizing data transfer cost using delta encoding when appropriate. It is widely used for backups and mirroring and as an improved copy command for everyday use(2).
Now, coming to the question of whether you should use sudo with Rsync to copy system files, the answer largely depends on the nature and location of the files you want to copy.
In Linux, certain system files and directories are owned by the root user (the superuser), and permission to read, write, or execute these files is often restricted to the root user for security reasons. If you’re trying to copy such files, you will need to use ‘sudo’ before the ‘rsync’ command to provide the necessary permissions. Here’s an example:
sudo rsync -avz /etc /backup
This command makes a backup of the /etc directory (which usually requires root permissions to copy) into a directory named /backup(3).
However, if you’re copying regular files or directories that your user has permission to read and write, you don’t need to use ‘sudo’. Using superuser permissions when it’s not necessary can be a security risk and is generally considered a bad practice(5).
To sum up, whether you use ‘sudo’ with ‘rsync’ to copy system files depends on the nature and location of the files. If the files or directories require superuser permissions to be copied, then yes, you should use ‘sudo’. If not, you can just use the ‘rsync’ command as is.
Sources :
(1) https://linuxize.com/post/sudo-command-in-linux/
(2) https://www.tecmint.com/rsync-local-remote-file-synchronization-commands/
(3) https://linuxhandbook.com/rsync-command-examples/
(4) https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/283715/when-do-i-need-to-use-sudo-for-rsync
(5) https://askubuntu.com/questions/167847/when-to-use-sudo-with-rsync
