Exit Codes & Error Handling

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning	Action
0	Success	All good
1	Syntax error	Fix command
2	Protocol mismatch	Upgrade rsync
3	File selection error	Check paths
5	Daemon start error	Check rsyncd
10	Socket I/O error	Retry
11	File I/O error	Check disk
12	Protocol stream error	Retry
23	Partial transfer (I/O)	Check perms
24	Files vanished	Usually safe
25	Max-delete reached	Intentional
30	Timeout	Increase --timeout
35	Daemon timeout	Retry
255	SSH error	Debug SSH

Error Handling Patterns

# Basic check
rsync -av src/ dest/
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then echo "FAILED"; fi

# One-liner for cron
rsync -av src/ dest/ || echo "Failed ($?) at $(date)" >> /var/log/rsync-errors.log

# Treat vanished files as OK
rsync -av src/ dest/; [ $? -eq 24 ] && true

# Retry 3 times on failure
for i in 1 2 3; do rsync -avzP src/ dest/ && break || sleep 60; done

# Smart error handling
rsync -av src/ dest/
case $? in
 0|24) echo "OK" ;;
 10|12|30|255) echo "Network error, retrying..."; sleep 60; rsync -avP src/ dest/ ;;
 *) echo "Fatal error"; exit 1 ;;
esac

# Alert on failure
rsync -av src/ dest/ || \
 curl -s -X POST -d '{"text":"rsync failed!"}' https://hooks.slack.com/YOUR/WEBHOOK

warning

Don't use set -e with rsync — exit code 24 (vanished files) will kill your script even though it's usually harmless.