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rsync trailing slash: what it actually copies

📅 2026-09-22 📊 beginner ["rsync" "linux" "backup"]

The Problem

You run rsync -av /var/log /backup/ expecting /backup/log/ to appear, but half your scripts fail because you got /backup/var/log/ instead. Or the opposite: you expected the source folder inside the destination and you got a flat copy of its contents.

The Mistake

Treating source and source/ as the same argument. They're not. The trailing slash tells rsync "copy the contents of this directory", not "copy this directory."

The Fix

# Copy the CONTENTS of /var/log into /backup/log/
rsync -av /var/log/ /backup/log/

# Copy the FOLDER /var/log into /backup/ (so you get /backup/log/)
rsync -av /var/log /backup/

Why It Works

rsync uses the trailing slash as a "treat as directory contents" signal:

• rsync src/ dst/ → for every entry inside src, copy it into dst.
• rsync src dst/ → copy src (a directory) into dst, creating dst/src.

This is the single most common rsync footgun. The man rsync page calls it out in the first paragraph; nobody reads it.

Copy-Paste

# Mirror /home to /backup, keeping folder structure
rsync -av --delete /home/ /backup/home/

Next Steps

• Add -n (dry-run) to any rsync command the first time you run it.
• Add --itemize-changes to see exactly what rsync is doing per file.
• For backups over SSH: rsync -av -e ssh src/ user@host:/dst/.

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