Basic Rsync

[Vergil83]

Ok, what I am trying to do is use rsync to copy a directory and its contents to a remote server that I access you using ssh. I have been looking at the man page and I came up with

rsync -arvv -e ssh /home/local_dir ssh_login@server_address:./Backup

I get an error. Googling gives a reason for the error yet no real solution.

If I remove the : after the adress it makes the backup on the local computer.

Any clues about how I can do this simple task?

[anomie]

Looks ok at a glance. What error are you getting?

You might change the remote path to look like:

rsync -arvv -e ssh /home/local_dir ssh_login@server_address:/home/login/Backup

where /home/login/Backup refers to the absolute path. At least eliminate that as a possible problem.

[Vergil83]

Thanks for the reply, I tried it and got

bash: rsync: command not found
rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (0 bytes received so far) [sender]
rsync error: remote command not found (code 127) at io.c(454) [sender=2.6.9]

I know that rsync is installed on both the local and remote computer.

[anomie]

Hmm. And what if you run:
$ ssh_login@server_address which rsync

?

[Vergil83]

Running which rsync from the server gives

 /opt/csw/bin/rsync

[bigtomrodney]

I usually use the following switches; rsync -uave but if the error is with rsync rather than your network and you are copying something up for the first time you might consider using scp instead.

[anomie]

Running which rsync from the server gives

 /opt/csw/bin/rsync

Odd path. Is that a Solaris server?

What I'd recommend is providing, along with your other options:
--rsync-path=/opt/csw/bin/rsync

It seems like rsync on the client side is confused by that strange path (even though it's apparently in the user's PATH). So providing it explicitly may be the solution.

[Vergil83]

Yes it is a Solaris server.

And *drum role* it worked! Stating the remote rsync path did the job. Thank you a ton anomie.

And thanks bigtomrodney, I was guessing at the options.