This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
rsync copies a tree. -a is the usual archive set. -n is a dry run. The builder drafts the command. It does not connect.
Both the source and the destination are hosts or paths you administer. --delete removes files on the destination that are not on the source. That is not the first run. A dry run is.
Do not use rsync to pull data from a host you do not administer. Do not put a password in the command. 192.0.2.10/24 and example.com are documentation. They stay in the note.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing while you are writing the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the host named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the host, then decide.
Rollback is the file, the package version, or the snapshot you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Name the source and the destination.
- Confirm you administer both.
- Draft the command with a dry run.
- Leave --delete out of the first draft.
- Do not run it during the reading.
- Stop.
Mistakes that outlive the command
rsync Guide for Admins goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- --delete on the first run.
- A host you do not administer.
- A password in the command.
- The dry run skipped.
- The only copy deleted because the destination was wrong.
Decisions to write down
One decision for rsync Guide for Admins: Both ends are yours. The first draft is a dry run. --delete is absent until a later ticket. No password is in the command. And nothing was run yet.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: Source and destination are written. Both are hosts you administer. Dry run is in the draft. --delete is absent. And nothing was run. If one of those fails, stop.
# -n first.
# --delete is not the first run.
# Both ends are yours.Before you leave the host
rsync Guide for Admins ends when the hostname in the prompt matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong host. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong host is not progress.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the host and does not know which disk is empty. You delete a line that names a host, a path, or an account you did not write down.
192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. They belong in the note. They are not values you leave on a host because a draft included them.
prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, or a token you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the password store.
One change is the window. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next change waits for its own page.
If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied change produces a host nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.
A second person reads the hostname and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the host alone.
This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not permission to touch a host you do not administer. You do not disable a firewall, AppArmor, or SELinux to make a check pass.
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