Backup & Recovery (Rsync/Tar/Dd)

Keep your rsync progress visible without drowning in logs

🧩 The Challenge

Sending a massive backup over a sketchy connection feels like throwing a message in a bottle into the ocean. You have no idea if it is still churning along or if it died ten minutes ago.

💡 The Fix

Throw a couple of specific flags into your rsync call to get a live, human-readable progress bar that won’t spam your terminal scrollback. It’s a total game-changer for monitoring long-running transfers.

rsync -avP --stats source/ destination/

⚙️ Why It Works

Adding the P flag acts as a shortcut for partial and progress, while the stats flag gives you a clean summary of what actually happened once the transfer wraps up. You get the real-time data you need without cluttering your session with thousands of individual file names.

🚀 Pro-Tip: Use –append-verify if you are resuming a transfer so rsync checks the file hashes instead of just trusting the size.

Linux Tips & Tricks | © ngelinux.com | 8/16/2026