Rsync Show Progress Bar While Copying Files

1. rsync command to with --progress option.
2. pv command – monitor the progress of data or data transfer through a pipe. This is a recommend option for most users.

rsync command to show progress bar

You need to use the --progress or -P option which show progress during file transfer. The syntax is as follows:

rsync --progress source dest
rsync -P source dest
rsync [options] --progress source dest
rsync -av --progress /path/to/*.mp3 /nfs
rsync -av --progress /path/to/*.avi -e user@remote.example.com:/data
###############################################################
## The following only works with the latest version of rsync ##
###############################################################
rsync -av --info=progress2 source dest
rsync -av --info=progress2 /path/to/*.avi -e user@remote.example.com:/data
 
## See the pv command below for more info & syntax ##

Examples: Rsync show progress bar in Linux

To copy file from /foo/*.tar.gz to a remote server called server1.cyberciti.biz, enter:

rsync -av -P /foo/*.tar.gz nixcraft@server1.cyberciti.biz:~

OR

rsync -av --progress /foo/*.tar.gz nixcraft@server1.cyberciti.biz:~

In this example, copy files from a remote server:

rsync -av --progress root@nas01:/tmp/*Office* .

Sample outputs:

receiving file list ... 
2 files to consider
MacOffice2011wSP2_English.dmg
  1036923510 100%   14.72MB/s    0:01:07 (xfer#1, to-check=1/2)
Office Mac Home and Student 2011 - 1PC-1User Keys.html
        2230 100%   23.67kB/s    0:00:00 (xfer#2, to-check=0/2)
 
sent 64 bytes  received 1037052576 bytes  15363742.81 bytes/sec
total size is 1036925740  speedup is 1.00

The --info=progress2 option shows statistics based on the whole transfer, rather than individual files. Use this flag without outputting a filename (e.g. avoid -v or specify –info=name0 if you want to see how the transfer is doing without scrolling the screen with a lot of names.

rsync -av --info=progress2 root@nas01:/tmp/*Office* .

Sample outputs:

sending incremental file list
MacOffice2011wSP2_English.dmg
  1,036,923,510  99%   39.90MB/s    0:00:24 (xfr#1, to-chk=0/2)
 
sent 1,037,176,846 bytes  received 35 bytes  40,673,603.18 bytes/sec
total size is 1,036,925,740  speedup is 1.00

In this example copy from local computer to remote server:
$ rsync -v --progress debian-9-openstack-amd64.qcow2 vivek@centos7:~/virt/

Use pv command to monitor progress of rsync command

The pv command allows you to see the progress of data through a pipeline. It provides the following info:

1. Time elapsed
2. Percentage completed (with progress bar)
3. Current throughput rate
4. Total data transferred
5. ETA

The syntax is:

rsync options source dest | pv -lpes Number-Of-Files

So if you have 42 files in /tmp/software and you would like to copy them to /nas10, enter:

rsync -vrltD --stats --human-readable /tmp/software /nas10 | pv -lep -s 42

OR

rsync -vrltD --stats --human-readable /tmp/software /nas10 | pv -lep -s 42 >/dev/null

Animated gif 01: rsync and pv command demo

Conclusion

You learned about displaying the progress bar when copying files with the rsync command on Linux, macOS, or Unix-like systems. See pv and rsync command man pages by typing the following commands:
man pv
man rsync