Using rsync may seem obtuse to new users at first. However, once you know how to structure and alias your commands, it is one of the absolute fastest & reliable ways to run backup systems:

rsync --h and man grep will tell you all the flags which are available to use. We will only detail some of the most important ones below:

To have rsync copy all files from one directory to another, use this command:

$ rsync -av /path/to/source/dir/ /path/to/destination/dir/

The -a flag tells rsync to not only recursively go into subdirectories, but it also ensures all attributes like timestamps & permissions are preserved. -v is for verbose output, so you can see what rsync is doing.

There are more flags you can combine with these basic rsync commands to fine-tune how your backups are executed. Play around with them on some demo directories to see how they affect your files!