Here’s a joke: Apple ships 10 year old software with macOS.
Unfortunately it’s neither a joke nor it’s funny… macOS Sierra, released in September 2016, came with rsync 2.6.9 Version 29, released in November 2006. That’s close to 10 years! Why?.
Fortunately it’s easy to update it yourself:
1) IF you have Homebrew installed:
brew tap homebrew/dupes
brew install rsync
2) ELSEIF you have no idea what Homebrew is:
Homebrew is sort of like a command line software manager for macOS. To install Homebrew, just copy paste this into your Terminal:
/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
Once you’re done with this, go back to 1).
3) ELSEIF you want to know more:
Here’s what’s happening:
brew tap homebrew/dupes
brew calls Homebrew
tab instructs Homebrew to add a new package source
homebrew/dupes that’s the new source
brew install rsync
install instructs Homebrew to install a new package
rsync that’s the package - rsync
You can install other packages brew install wget, update installed packages brew update wget and even create your own packages. Check out brew.sh
4) IFELSE
Check out two more macOS package managers: