I need to use rsync to copy a very large amount of data between two Macs. I'm thinking it would go faster if the Macs are connected by an ethernet cable directly. Can I use rsync with ssh option? What would be the address of the destination computer?
Yes using ethernet would be a good idea. I assume there is a network switch with a router between the Macs?
Firewire & Thunderbolt will both be quicker depending on the Mac models. Target disk mode is prossibly easier if the machines are capable & next to each other.
Target disk mode - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
rsync will use ssh too. As for the IP address you will need to look on each Mac. You may not be able to use ssh if you are on a corporate or education LAN that has different sub-networks. Just see if the IP's are in a similar range.
e.g they are both 192.168.0.xxx
Here is Apples rsync manual
https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/ man1/rsync.1.html
Do you have a reason for not using GUI tools, possibly via Apple File Sharing etc? rsync is fine, but it's complex if you are new to the Terminal etc?
Thanks, using thnderbolt and target disk mode sounds like a much better option than what I was planning to do.
I was going to connect the Macs directly with an ethernet cable without a router betwen them (both machines would be offline). By the way (just out of curiosity), will the computers have any IP addresses in that case?
Thunderbolt was fast last time I used it via Target disk mode 🙂
You can do direct networking it you hook up with one cable & enable 'internet sharing' on one Mac. That means it will run a DHCP server & give the second Mac an IP over ethernet. You don't need a valid internet connection on Mac 1.
If you didn't use internet sharing I think you would need to manually assign the IP's & subnet masks in the network settings, but I'm still not sure it would work.
If you hooked up a router with a switch it should give out IP addresses via DHCP, otherwise the machines use 'self assigned' IP addresses, usually indicated by an IP of 169.x.x.x. Local networking becomes difficult because each Mac doesn't have anywhere to lookup the other Mac's address. Any old Airport base station or router would do.
The router manages a list of MAC addresses & IP addresses, a lot of network routing uses the actual MAC address, but it's translated via the local cache, or the routers ARP tables (IP's & MACs).
Don't worry, I think I just confused myself too 🙂
Bummer: one of the computers is a 2009 iMac. It does not have a thunderbolt port, there is a minidisplay port instead.
iMac has firewire though. I think I can use firewire connected to a thunderbolt port on the other computer with a thunderbolt to firewire adapter. (The other computer is a later 2013 rMBP with Mavericks). Would that let me connecting iMac to rMBP in target disk mode? The iMac runs Snow Leopard if that matters.
Thanks for your help.
(looks like it should work according to this: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10725)
Message was edited by: zornie
I was just fininshing this off when you posted…
That's great news 🙂
I believe the TB to FW adapter will allow that to work, but I haven't tried sorry. If it's the Apple adapter either the reviews on the Apple store or these discussions would have the complaints if it didn't work.
I think Thunderbolt is as robust as Firewire & also has similar low level access to the system so it should work.
using rsync to copy files between macs connected with ethernet cable
