So just updated my dev machine and was transferring files back to it via cp which was taking a long time. I just wanted to know how far along the command had progressed via a percentage/progress bar/etc. so that I could get a cup of coffee, or make lunch – if it was gonna take a very long time. I know it’s possible to do this but not by using cp alone.

So I found rsync after a little bit of googling. The part that I really like about it is the --progress option, which let’s you know via stdout how far along the command is.

Here is a basic example:

rsync --progress -a /path/to/source /path/to/destination

– This will copy a directory, show progress, and maintain ownership, permissions, modified via the -a option (Archive).

or, over the network:

rsync -zP /path/to/source handle@domain.tld:/path/to/destination

– This will copy source over the network connection specified, use compression, show progress and allow for continuing interrupted transfers.

P.S. As a preemptive measure you could also run du -sh on dirs before copying to get an idea of how big they actually are.

Published on December 3, 2013