Installing rsync Command in Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS

To install rsync on your Linux system, the process depends on your distribution. Below you’ll find the most common methods based on popular Linux distros.

Ubuntu / Debian

Debian-based systems usually have rsync available in the default repositories. Run:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install rsync

To verify installation:

rsync --version

If rsync is already installed, the output will show the version and compilation flags.

CentOS / RHEL / AlmaLinux / Rocky

Use dnf or yum depending on your version:

sudo dnf install rsync
# or
sudo yum install rsync

In minimal installations, you might first need to enable the appropriate repositories.

Arch Linux / Manjaro

On Arch-based systems:

sudo pacman -S rsync

You can confirm it’s working with:

which rsync

Fedora

Fedora users can install rsync using:

sudo dnf install rsync

This installs the latest available version from Fedora’s official repo.

OpenSUSE

Run the following command:

sudo zypper install rsync

Installing From Source (Any Distro)

If you want the latest version of rsync directly from source:

wget https://download.samba.org/pub/rsync/src/rsync-3.3.0.tar.gz
tar -xzf rsync-3.3.0.tar.gz
cd rsync-3.3.0
./configure
make
sudo make install

After building from source, you can confirm with:

/usr/local/bin/rsync --version

In some cases, you may need to update your $PATH or use an alias if a system version is also installed.

Check if rsync is already installed

Before installing, you can quickly check if rsync exists:

rsync --version

If the command is found, you’re good to go.

If not, the terminal will return something like:

Command 'rsync' not found