S3cmd – Sync Files Between S3 bucket and Local Directory

In the last articles we have install s3cmd in Linux and Windows systems and learn about it working. In that article you can find how to create bucket, upload/download data between buckets etc. This article will help you to how to sync file between s3 bucket and local directory in both directions.

Before start syncing files, make sure you have installed s3cmd in your system, or use following articles to install it

How to Install s3cmd in Linux and Manage s3 Buckets
How to Install s3cmd in Windows and Manage S3 Buckets

1. Syncing Files from Local => S3 Bucket

For example I want to sync my local directory /root/mydir/ to S3 bucket directory s3://tecadmin/mydir/ where tecadmin is bucket name. I have created some new files in /root/mydir/ and sync to s3 bucket using following command.

# s3cmd sync /root/mydir/ s3://tecadmin/mydir/ 

[Sample Output]

/root/mydir/index.php -> s3://tecadmin/mydir/index.php  [1 of 2]
 397 of 397   100% in    0s     4.02 kB/s  done
/root/mydir/readme.html -> s3://tecadmin/mydir/readme.html  [2 of 2]
 9202 of 9202   100% in    0s   103.62 kB/s  done
Done. Uploaded 9599 bytes in 0.3 seconds, 27.92 kB/s

Note: Do not forgot to add trailing slash (/) in local directory path when specifying s3 bucket with full directory path.

To keep preserve file attributes like date/time etc use -p or –preserve parameter like below

# s3cmd sync /root/mydir/ --preserve s3://tecadmin/mydir/

If we want to sync only newly created file on source use –skip-existing parameter. It will skip all files which already exists on destination either its modified on source.

# s3cmd sync /root/mydir/ --skip-existing s3://tecadmin/mydir/

If you want to delete all files from s3 bucket which has removed from local use –delete-removed parameter.

# s3cmd sync /root/mydir/ --delete-removed s3://tecadmin/mydir/

2. Syncing Files from S3 Bucket => Local Directory

For this example I am again using same folder and bucket used above. To test this i have put some extra files in s3 bucket (s3://tecadmin/mydir/) and executed following command to sync all files to local directory.

# s3cmd sync s3://tecadmin/mydir/ /root/mydir/

[Sample Output]
s3://tecadmin/mydir/logo.jpg -> /root/mydir/logo.jpg  [2 of 3]
 7219 of 7219   100% in    0s   125.28 kB/s  done
s3://tecadmin/mydir/user.php -> /root/mydir/user.php  [3 of 3]
 40380 of 40380   100% in    0s   596.33 kB/s  done
Done. Downloaded 47599 bytes in 0.3 seconds, 184.40 kB/s

We can also used –preserve, –skip-existing and –delete-removed parameters during syncing files from S3 bucket to Local directory as followings.

# s3cmd sync s3://tecadmin/mydir/ --preserve  /root/mydir/
# s3cmd sync s3://tecadmin/mydir/ --skip-existing /root/mydir/
# s3cmd sync s3://tecadmin/mydir/ --delete-removed /root/mydir/

Read more about s3cmd sync http://s3tools.org/s3cmd-sync