Invoking this command will make sure that once it's over with, there will be a /target/folder, and it will contain all of the same files that the original /source/folder contains. In common use, rsync looks like this: rsync -ha -progress /source/folder /target/ It makes a task which is humanly intuitive seem simple despite being objectively complex. But somewhat rare for any tool, in my experience, rsync is also very elegant.

There is no GUI, no wizard, and you can use it for the most basic of tasks without being hindered by its interface. Adhering to true Unix design philosophy, it's a simple tool to use. Rsync is a tool for synchronizing folders and/or files from one location to another. For what it's worth, the earliest record of my professional involvement with major open source tools-at least that I've discovered-is my activity on the rsync mailing list in the early 2000s.

He used it for three chapters of his PhD thesis three years later, about the time that I discovered and began enthusiastically using it. Andrew Tridgell (of Samba fame) first announced rsync publicly in June of 1996. Further Reading Bitrot and atomic COWs: Inside “next-gen” filesystems Revisiting a first love of any kind makes for a romantic trip down memory lane, and that's what revisiting rsync-as in ''-feels like for me. It's hard to write an article that's inevitably going to end up trashing the tool, because I've been wildly in love with it for more than 15 years.

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