Transferring from Windows to Linux with rsync

Question

noob here,

I'm trying to transfer a file using rsync from windows to linux. I have this code, but I'm getting an error

rsync -avz -e ssh C:\users\file.txt [email protected]:/var/dir

I get this error The source and destination cannot be both remote

And if I try

rsync -avz -e ssh /c/users/file.txt [email protected]:/var/dir

I get, No such file or directory

So, I think the problem is with the path of the file on the windows.. I've heard about cygwin but haven't really tried it

What can I do to get the path to work?

Solution 1

If you're using CygWin to rsync from the Windows box, the local file you want is almost certainly:

/cygdrive/c/users/file.txt

rather then:

/c/users/file.txt

Solution 2

Writing the right rsyncd.conf is a little bit complicated.

I get the error message

@ERROR: chdir failed rsync error: error starting client-server protocol (code 5) at main.c(1296) [receiver=2.6.8]

and

2012/06/10 14:59:43 [9252] rsync: chdir /cygdrive/d failed : No such file or directory (2)

Because I miss the "use chroot = false" directive in my rsyncd.conf

Here is an example of rsyncd.conf:

log file        = c:/rsync.log
auth users      = backup
secrets file    = /cygdrive/c/Program Files/RSync/rsyncd.secrets

[backup]
comment         = Backup this host
path            = /cygdrive/d
use chroot      = false
strict modes    = false
read only       = false
transfer logging = yes
hosts allow     = 192.168.2.252

Be sure the rsync.log file is created/changed after restart service, if it's not done, you have some error in your rsyncd.conf file and the rsync does'nt use them but no error or info is showed at all!

And so, the format of rsyncd.secrets file, is:

backup:<password>