Rsync a share on a Windows box

Jeroen1000 · 02-11-2010, 08:53 AM

Hi everyone,

I've figured out about half of the problem this time. I've duplicated the directory structure of the Windows machine on the Linux server.

I then proceed with mounting the Windows share on the Linux server. I type the mount command while I'm in Folder1 on the Linux server:

Code:

 mount -t smbfs -o username=test,password=test  //192.168.1.3/Folder1/Subfolder Subfolder

So far so good. Now I need to rsync and the command for this is

Code:

rsync -va /path/to/src /path/to/dst

But what do I fill in here? I'm guessing path/to/dst is just plain Folder1 on the Linux box. Path/to/src refers to the share on the Windows machine but since I've mounted that share, is path to source = path to destination?

rweaver · 02-11-2010, 11:52 AM

I'll answer this with an example:

Code:

core:~# mount /dev/hdc1 /backup
core:~# mount -t smbfs //192.168.0.10/folder /Windows/Server1
core:~# rsync -avh /Windows/Server1 /backup

Also based on what you said, watch for recursion.

jefro · 02-11-2010, 09:10 PM

Could do it the other way too. Run rsync from windows.

rweaver · 02-12-2010, 12:57 PM

The only problem with rsync for windows is there are some interaction bugs between it and ssh which can cause some flusterating condition to manifest in some cases. I did a lot of research on it at one point and was finally able to determine that the bugs exist because of the way piping is handled in windows and the developers of all the packages (cygwin, ssh port for windows, rsync) all have listed the bug as being with cygwin and a fix is unlikely.

Which is unfortunate. That being said, anything that DOESN'T use cygwin is likely unaffected by it, but its hard to find a ssh and rsync client that don't use it that are open source (and understandably so).

Jeroen1000 · 02-15-2010, 02:08 AM

Thanks guys, Works like a charm. Now I need to keep an eye on it. I've read that Rsync sometimes has trouble identifying which files have changed. Perhaps it does not always correctly interpret Windows' archive bit.