a fast, versatile, remote (and local) file-copying tool

-a, --archive
       This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick way  of  saying  you  want  recursion  and  want  to
       preserve  almost  everything  (with -H being a notable omission).  The only exception to the above
       equivalence is when --files-from is specified, in which case -r is not implied.

       Note that -a does not preserve hardlinks, because finding multiply-linked files is expensive.  You
       must separately specify -H.

-v, --verbose
       This  option  increases  the amount of information you are given during the transfer.  By default,
       rsync works silently. A single -v will give you information about what files are being transferred
       and  a  brief summary at the end. Two -v options will give you information on what files are being
       skipped and slightly more information at the end. More than two -v options should only be used  if
       you are debugging rsync.

       Note that the names of the transferred files that are output are done using a default --out-format
       of "%n%L", which tells you just the name of the file and, if the item is a link, where it  points.
       At  the  single  -v  level  of  verbosity,  this  does not mention when a file gets its attributes
       changed.  If you ask for an itemized list  of  changed  attributes  (either  --itemize-changes  or
       adding  "%i"  to  the  --out-format  setting), the output (on the client) increases to mention all
       items that are changed in any way.  See the --out-format option for more details.

-e, --rsh=COMMAND
       This option allows you to choose an alternative remote shell  program  to  use  for  communication
       between  the  local  and  remote  copies  of  rsync.  Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
       default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.

       If this option is used with [user@]host::module/path, then the remote shell COMMAND will  be  used
       to  run  an  rsync daemon on the remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
       shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a running rsync daemon on  the
       remote host.  See the section "USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" above.

       Command-line  arguments  are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is presented to rsync as a
       single argument.  You must use spaces (not tabs or other whitespace) to separate the  command  and
       args  from  each  other,  and  you  can  use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an
       argument (but not backslashes).  Note that doubling a single-quote inside a  single-quoted  string
       gives  you  a  single-quote; likewise for double-quotes (though you need to pay attention to which
       quotes your shell is parsing and which quotes rsync is parsing).  Some examples:

    -e 'ssh -p 2234'
    -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"'

(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect options in their  .ssh/config
file.)

You  can  also  choose  the  remote  shell program using the RSYNC_RSH environment variable, which
accepts the same range of values as -e.

See also the --blocking-io option which is affected by this option.