openrsync
Ranked 8 of 14 file sync apps by recommenders
Free, BSD-licensed rsync reimplementation from the OpenBSD team, mostly a drop-in for everyday use. Caveat: not feature-equivalent to rsync and does not match its security features.
Free, BSD-licensed rsync reimplementation from the OpenBSD team, mostly a drop-in for everyday use. Caveat: not feature-equivalent to rsync and does not match its security features.
27 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 17
- criticize it
- 10
- approval share
- 63%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 17 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Works well for everyday use
“as of 7.8 it did not support --exclude or -z. But outside of that it works great.”
Comment from 30 May 2026 in “Openrsync: A BSD-licensed implementation of rsync, by the OpenBSD team” “On use, there is nothing wrong with openrsync”
Comment from 30 May 2026 in “Openrsync: A BSD-licensed implementation of rsync, by the OpenBSD team” Drop-in replacement for rsync
“it has been mostly a drop-in. Except a problem where I couldn't mix `--exclude glob` and `--delete` on the client”
Comment from 31 May 2026 in “Openrsync: A BSD-licensed implementation of rsync, by the OpenBSD team” “Just use openrsync instead.”
Comment from 31 May 2026 in “Please Do Not Vibe Fuck Up This Software – Rsync” Smaller, cleaner codebase
“The smaller code base also means less bugs and vulnerabilities.”
Comment from 6 Jun 2026 in “Did Claude Increase Bugs in Rsync?” “No-slop version for the sane of us”
Comment from 30 May 2026 in “Openrsync: A BSD-licensed implementation of rsync, by the OpenBSD team” Improving steadily over time
“it's definitely improved over time. I'm looking forward to when I can use it exclusively.”
Comment from 30 May 2026 in “Openrsync: A BSD-licensed implementation of rsync, by the OpenBSD team” “Thank you OpenBSD for giving us, albeit surprisingly for rsync, a nice v2”
Comment from 31 May 2026 in “Openrsync: A BSD-licensed implementation of rsync, by the OpenBSD team”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Bugs and failing tests
“a "bajillion Claude commits then a release" with a pile of issues within weeks”
Comment from 30 May 2026 in “Openrsync: A BSD-licensed implementation of rsync, by the OpenBSD team” “reports say that the base system bin in 7.9 doesn't work properly”
Comment from 6 Jun 2026 in “Did Claude Increase Bugs in Rsync?” “I remember it breaking some scripts mysteriously”
Comment from 30 May 2026 in “Openrsync: A BSD-licensed implementation of rsync, by the OpenBSD team” - Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “Did Claude Increase Bugs in Rsync?”
Missing or broken rsync options
“it has been mostly a drop-in. Except a problem where I couldn't mix `--exclude glob` and `--delete` on the client”
Comment from 31 May 2026 in “Openrsync: A BSD-licensed implementation of rsync, by the OpenBSD team” “It's also not feature-equivalent to rsync. But if it meets your needs, it's an option.”
Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “Did Claude Increase Bugs in Rsync?” “as of 7.8 it did not support --exclude or -z. But outside of that it works great.”
Comment from 30 May 2026 in “Openrsync: A BSD-licensed implementation of rsync, by the OpenBSD team” Older protocol, interop problems
“They don’t support any recent rsync protocol, so there’s no 64bit timestamp support, so you can never actually sync metadata across newer filesystems.”
Comment from 30 May 2026 in “Openrsync: A BSD-licensed implementation of rsync, by the OpenBSD team” “Thing is it doesn't seem to talk very well with the samba version of rsync.”
Comment from 3 Jan 2026 in “The rsync algorithm (1996) [pdf]” Still a work in progress
“it's definitely improved over time. I'm looking forward to when I can use it exclusively.”
Comment from 30 May 2026 in “Openrsync: A BSD-licensed implementation of rsync, by the OpenBSD team” “It appears that openrsync is still very much work in progress.”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “High Performance SSH/SCP”
Other file sync apps people recommend
The four most recommended other file sync apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 14 file sync apps, rankedWhat people said
28 of the 30 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“reports say that the base system bin in 7.9 doesn't work properly”
“The smaller code base also means less bugs and vulnerabilities.”
“It's also not feature-equivalent to rsync. But if it meets your needs, it's an option.”
“openrsync currently fails 85 of 98 tests”
“already shipped by default in OpenBSD and macOS”
“Seems more cathedral than Bazaar to me.”
“The outcome is NOT the same as if I had run "scp /etc/services example.com:/tmp/services"”
“Thank you OpenBSD for giving us, albeit surprisingly for rsync, a nice v2”
“Just use openrsync instead.”
“it has been mostly a drop-in. Except a problem where I couldn't mix `--exclude glob` and `--delete` on the client”
“sounds like a compliment to the implementation”
“On use, there is nothing wrong with openrsync”
“a "bajillion Claude commits then a release" with a pile of issues within weeks”
“this just seems like burning cash”
“They don’t support any recent rsync protocol, so there’s no 64bit timestamp support, so you can never actually sync metadata across newer filesystems.”
“I wasn't aware that Tridge is using Claude. I shall use Openrsync from now on.”
“Openrsync is a project that's existed for a long time and is a great example of people building what they want.”
“I 100% agree about trailing slashes.”
“We don't, since we're not implementing a UI from scratch, we're matching something else.”
“I remember it breaking some scripts mysteriously”
“it's definitely improved over time. I'm looking forward to when I can use it exclusively.”
“It is portable in the sense that it compiles and runs, not in the sense that it has the same security features.”
“that would be a show stopper for a number of people”
“as of 7.8 it did not support --exclude or -z. But outside of that it works great.”
“No-slop version for the sane of us”
“Thing is it doesn't seem to talk very well with the samba version of rsync.”
“It appears that openrsync is still very much work in progress.”
“OpenBSD has reimplemented the rsync protocol in a new codebase”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.