Preserve source paths when copying with rsync

Use rsync -a to copy a directory tree with its usual archive attributes. Add -R, or --relative, when you also want to recreate the source's leading path components under the destination.

These examples target upstream rsync. Check rsync --version: some operating systems ship a different implementation, such as openrsync, whose option behavior can differ. In particular, verify /./ relative-path handling with a temporary directory before relying on it.

Copy a directory or its contents

rsync -av /data/projects/ /backup/projects/

This copies the contents of projects into the named destination. When /backup/ already exists, these two forms differ:

# Include the projects directory itself.
rsync -av /data/projects /backup/
# Copy its contents directly into /backup/.
rsync -av /data/projects/ /backup/

Archive mode combines recursion, symlink preservation, permissions, modification times, group and owner handling, and device/special-file handling. Privileges and filesystem support still matter. It does not automatically include hard-link preservation, ACLs, or extended attributes; those use options such as -H, -A, and -X where supported.

Recreate the leading path

rsync -avR /home/alice/documents/reports/ /backup/

The destination contains home/alice/documents/reports/ beneath /backup/. To keep only part of that path, insert /./ at the desired boundary:

rsync -avR /home/alice/./documents/reports/ /backup/

Now the destination contains documents/reports/, without home/alice/. The dot component controls the transferred path; it is not an extra directory created at the destination.

For log collection from multiple hosts, give each host a separate destination:

rsync -avR -e ssh backup@host1:/var/log/./nginx/ /central-logs/host1/

The remote account needs read access to the selected logs. Copying actively written logs this way is not a durable event-delivery mechanism and can race with rotation.

Combine path preservation with filters

# Skip temporary files while preserving the requested path.
rsync -avR --exclude='*.tmp' /data/./projects/ /backup/

# Preview a mirror operation, including destination deletions.
rsync -avniR --delete /data/./projects/ /backup/

# Remote transfer with compression, when useful for the data.
rsync -avzR -e ssh /data/./projects/ backup@host2:/backup/

Review the dry-run's paths and deletion entries before removing -n. A mirror can delete destination-only data within the synchronized directory tree; it is not a versioned backup. Filter paths are relative to the transfer root, so changing a trailing slash or /./ boundary can also change which exclusion matches.

-a and -R are compatible: one governs attributes, the other path layout. Across hosts, normal owner/group mapping can use names. --numeric-ids preserves numeric IDs instead, which is appropriate only when those IDs mean what you intend at the destination.

Reference: rsync options and relative paths.