Cross-Platform

OS-Specific Flags

Transfer	Recommended Flags
Linux → Linux	-avAX (full metadata)
macOS → Linux	-av --no-xattrs --exclude='._*' --exclude='.DS_Store'
Windows → Linux (WSL)	-av --iconv=CP1252,UTF-8 --chmod=D755,F644
Linux → NTFS/FAT	-av --no-perms --no-owner --no-group
Linux → FAT32	-av --no-perms --modify-window=2
Any → No symlink support	-av --copy-links

Commands

# macOS → Linux (clean transfer)
rsync -av --no-xattrs --exclude='._*' --exclude='.DS_Store' \
 /src/ user@linux:/dest/

# Windows WSL → Linux
rsync -av --iconv=CP1252,UTF-8 --chmod=D755,F644 \
 /mnt/c/project/ user@linux:/var/www/html/

# Linux → USB drive (FAT32)
rsync -av --no-perms --no-owner --no-group --modify-window=2 \
 /src/ /mnt/usb/backup/

# Force older protocol (version mismatch)
rsync -av --protocol=29 src/ user@old-server:dest/

# Skip ACLs (destination doesn't support)
rsync -av --no-acls src/ user@remote:dest/

# Check versions on both ends
rsync --version | head -1
ssh user@remote "rsync --version | head -1"

# Symlinks as copies (cross-platform safe)
rsync -av --copy-links src/ dest/

tip

--iconv converts filenames only, not file contents. Use dos2unix before syncing if you need line-ending conversion.