diff --git a/config/software/gitlab-cookbooks.rb b/config/software/gitlab-cookbooks.rb
index 5bae1aa..a0da475 100644
--- a/config/software/gitlab-cookbooks.rb
+++ b/config/software/gitlab-cookbooks.rb
@@ -18,11 +18,13 @@
 
 name "gitlab-cookbooks"
 
+dependency "rsync"
+
 always_build true
 
 source :path => File.expand_path("files/gitlab-cookbooks", Config.project_root)
 
 build do
   command "mkdir -p #{install_dir}/embedded/cookbooks"
-  sync project_dir, "#{install_dir}/embedded/cookbooks/"
+  command "#{install_dir}/embedded/bin/rsync --delete -a ./ #{install_dir}/embedded/cookbooks/"
 end
diff --git a/config/software/gitlab-ctl.rb b/config/software/gitlab-ctl.rb
index 4355b62..9e17e0a 100644
--- a/config/software/gitlab-ctl.rb
+++ b/config/software/gitlab-ctl.rb
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 
 name "gitlab-ctl"
 
+dependency "rsync"
 dependency "omnibus-ctl"
 
 source :path => File.expand_path("files/gitlab-ctl-commands", Config.project_root)
@@ -64,5 +65,5 @@ done
   command "chmod 755 #{install_dir}/bin/gitlab-ctl"
 
   # additional omnibus-ctl commands
-  sync project_dir, "#{install_dir}/embedded/service/omnibus-ctl/"
+  command "#{install_dir}/embedded/bin/rsync -a ./ #{install_dir}/embedded/service/omnibus-ctl/"
 end
diff --git a/config/software/gitlab-rails.rb b/config/software/gitlab-rails.rb
index c0aac4b..e6d1c6a 100644
--- a/config/software/gitlab-rails.rb
+++ b/config/software/gitlab-rails.rb
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ dependency "bundler"
 dependency "libxml2"
 dependency "libxslt"
 dependency "curl"
+dependency "rsync"
 dependency "libicu"
 dependency "postgresql"
 dependency "python-docutils"
@@ -38,7 +39,7 @@ build do
   env = with_standard_compiler_flags(with_embedded_path)
 
   # GitLab assumes it can extract the Git revision of the currently version
-  # from the Git repo the code lives in at boot. Because of our sync later on,
+  # from the Git repo the code lives in at boot. Because of our rsync later on,
   # this assumption does not hold. The sed command below patches the GitLab
   # source code to include the Git revision of the code included in the omnibus
   # build.
@@ -83,7 +84,7 @@ build do
   command "cp db/schema.rb db/schema.rb.bundled"
 
   command "mkdir -p #{install_dir}/embedded/service/gitlab-rails"
-  sync project_dir, "#{install_dir}/embedded/service/gitlab-rails/", exclude: %w{.git .gitignore}
+  command "#{install_dir}/embedded/bin/rsync -a --delete --exclude=.git/*** --exclude=.gitignore ./ #{install_dir}/embedded/service/gitlab-rails/"
 
   # Create a wrapper for the rake tasks of the Rails app
   erb :dest => "#{install_dir}/bin/gitlab-rake",
diff --git a/config/software/gitlab-shell.rb b/config/software/gitlab-shell.rb
index 2af8868..ca3c725 100644
--- a/config/software/gitlab-shell.rb
+++ b/config/software/gitlab-shell.rb
@@ -20,12 +20,13 @@ name "gitlab-shell"
 default_version "91753e937e729c0fedc9a5dd7ae52b85436b4971" # 1.9.7
 
 dependency "ruby"
+dependency "rsync"
 
 source :git => "https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-shell.git"
 
 build do
   command "mkdir -p #{install_dir}/embedded/service/gitlab-shell"
-  sync project_dir, "#{install_dir}/embedded/service/gitlab-shell/", exclude: %{.git .gitignore}
+  command "#{install_dir}/embedded/bin/rsync -a --delete --exclude=.git/*** --exclude=.gitignore ./ #{install_dir}/embedded/service/gitlab-shell/"
   block do
     env_shebang = "#!/usr/bin/env ruby"
     `grep -r -l '^#{env_shebang}' #{project_dir}`.split("\n").each do |ruby_script|
--
libgit2 0.21.2