The command-line utility rsync synchronizes files on Unix, Linux, and macOS operating systems.
What does the flag -a default to? It is the “archive mode”.
Here is how to use the command-line utility rsync without the archive flag.
-a, --archive; archive mode; equals -rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-X)
Where:
-r, --recursive; recurse into directories -l, --links; copy symlinks as symlinks -p, --perms; preserve permissions -t, --times; preserve modification times -g, --group; preserve group -o, --owner; preserve owner (super-user only) -D; same as --devices --specials --devices; preserve device files (super-user only) --specials; preserve special files
Alternative Usage
This alternative syntax could be used for disk-to-disk transfers:
-x, --one-file-system; don't cross filesystem boundaries
