---
name: "rdiffdir"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "duplicity"
version: "0.8.22-1+b3"
release: "Debian 12 (Bookworm)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/rdiffdir"
---

# rdiffdir(1)

compute and apply signatures and diffs to directories

## NAME

rdiffdir - compute and apply signatures and diffs to directories

## SYNOPSIS

**rdiffdir** **\[***options***\]** **sig\[nature\]** *basis\_dir signature\_file*

**rdiffdir** **\[***options***\]** **delta** *full\_sigtar* **{***incr\_sigtar***}** *new\_dir delta\_file*

**rdiffdir** **\[***options***\]** **patch** *basis\_dir delta\_file*

**rdiffdir** **\[***options***\]** **tar** *basis\_dir tar\_file*

If *signature\_file* or *delta\_file* are "-", the data will be read from stdin or written to stdout as appropriate.

## DESCRIPTION

**rdiffdir** is supposed to be like rdiff, but can operate on directories.  See [**rdiff**(1)](/rdiff/1.md) for more information.  The syntax is similar.

Regarding the **delta** command, the *full\_sigtar* operand is a *signature\_file* written by an earlier **signature** or **tar** command (the latter using the **--write-sig-to** option). The optional *incr\_sigtar* operands are signature files written by earlier **delta** commands using the *--write-sig-to* option. This way the Nth invocation of the **delta** command can parse (and extend) the signature chain that has been founded by the first **signature** or **tar** command with a full signature, and then extended by the subsequent N-1 **delta** invocations with incremental signatures. It is the responsibility of the user to specify the sigtar operands in logical increment order.

## OPTIONS

- **--write-sig-to** *sigfile*

  This option is only used in **delta** and **tar** modes.  When specified, rdiffdir will write a signature of the directory it is processing to sigfile.  The end result will be a delta and a new signature calculated over the **same** data.

- **-z, --gzip-compress**

  Enable gzip compression and decompression of signature and delta files.

## SELECTION OPTIONS

In **signature** and **delta** modes, rdiffdir accepts **duplicity**-like selection options including --exclude, --exclude-filelist, etc. See the [**duplicity**(1)](/duplicity/1.md) manual page for more information.

## BUGS

Hard links are currently unsupported (they will be treated as non-linked regular files).

Bad signatures will be treated as empty instead of logging appropriate error message.

## AUTHOR

- **Original Author** - Ben Escoto \<bescoto@stanford.edu\>

  - **Current Maintainer** - Kenneth Loafman \<kenneth@loafman.com\>

  - **Continuous Contributors**

  Edgar Soldin, Mike Terry

Also we'd like to thank everybody posting issues to the mailing list or on launchpad, sending in patches or contributing otherwise. Duplicity wouldn't be as stable and useful if it weren't for you.

A special thanks goes to rsync.net, a Cloud Storage provider with explicit support for duplicity, for several monetary donations and for providing a special "duplicity friends" rate for their offsite backup service.  Email info@rsync.net for details.

## SEE ALSO

[**duplicity**(1)](/duplicity/1.md), [**python**(1)](/python/1.md), [**rdiff**(1)](/rdiff/1.md), [**rdiff-backup**(1)](/rdiff-backup/1.md).