rsync is a masterpiece for remote-copying files in any number of smart ways. Once you had a look at it, you'll never touch rdist or GNU cp -r again.
So that's an example of why it's useful. But what does it take to make it available, and what are its command-line parameters? I can't find any information about it in my SuSE 7.1 system.
My SuSE 7.0 contains in package rsync: /etc/rsyncd.conf /etc/rsyncd.secrets /usr/bin/rsync /usr/bin/rsyncstats /usr/sbin/rsyncd /usr/share/doc/packages/rsync /usr/share/doc/packages/rsync/COPYING /usr/share/doc/packages/rsync/README /usr/share/doc/packages/rsync/tech_report.ps /usr/share/doc/packages/rsync/tech_report.tex /usr/share/man/man1/rsync.1.gz /usr/share/man/man5/rsyncd.conf.5.gz Install that package. I can't quite imagine something as fundamental as this having changed from 7.0 to 7.1. There is an excellent man page, and rsync --help tells you more than you want to know on first reading. Volker