Q:

rsync output

I am new to rsync and I do not understand the output I am getting, can someone help me out,
the output contains lines such as,
<f.st...... somefile.txt
<f+++++++++ someOtherfile.zip
.d..t...... someDir/

I do not understand what the options on the left mean, and I am having trouble finding the answer on google. Thanks.

A:

I've paraphrased here the relevant portion of the manpage for people who have trouble finding it:
The first character indicates what is happening to the file:

< means that a file is being transferred to the remote host (sent).
> means that a file is being transferred to the local host (received).
c means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item (such as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
h means that the item is a hard link to another item (requires --hard-links).
. means that the item is not being updated (though it might have attributes that are being modified).
* means that the rest of the itemized-output area contains a message (e.g. "deleting").

The second character indicates what type of directory entry it is. Specifically:

f for file
d for directory
L for symbolic link
D for device
S for special file (e.g. socket or fifo)

The remaining columns are described below:

c means either that a regular file has a different checksum or that a symlink, device, or special file has a changed value.
s means the size of a regular file is different and will be updated by the file transfer.
t or T:

t means the modification time is different and is being updated to the sender's value
T means that the modification time will be set to the transfer time

p means the permissions are different and are being updated to the sender's value
o means the owner is different and is being updated to the sender's value
g means the group is different and is being updated to the sender's value
. unused

The following columns may not be present, depending on your transfer options

a means that the ACL information changed
x means that the extended attribute information changed

A:

There is a good explanation in the man page, under itemize-changes:
http://www.samba.org/ftp/rsync/rsync.html
(Between mirrored archives of mailings lists and (perhaps out of date) copies of the documentation, it can be difficult to arrive at that page)

A:

I believe that output comes from the '-i' flag, search the man page for 'itemize' a few times (or search for 'cryptic output') and it shows what all the flags mean:

< means that a file is being transferred to the remote host (sent).

f for a file

d for directory

s means  the  size of a regular file is different and will be updated by the file transfer.

t means the modification time is different and is being updated

