Rsync message: client: nothing to do

[Dave Dykstra]

On Tue, Mar 26, 2002 at 06:18:40PM -0800, Yuri Kretov wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> May be I am wrong, but why rsync tells me that it's nothing to do?
> I just want to synchronize the directory's attributes (with no recursion) such as:
> permissions, owner, group and time.
> 
> Example:
> =======
> 
> host1# pwd
> /var/rsync/host2
> !
> ! At first, I copy only subdirecory /usr/local/samba/lib 
> !
> host1# mkdir -p usr/local/samba
> host1# rsync -a --delete -e ssh host2:/usr/local/samba/lib /var/rsync/host2/usr/local/samba
> !
> ! Then, I want to update the attributes for /usr/local/samba, which was created by mkdir
> !
> host1# rsync -vpogt -e ssh host2:/usr/local/samba /var/rsync/host2/usr/local
> !
> ! So, the diagnostic appears:
> !
> skipping directory /usr/local
> client: nothing to do: perhaps you need to specify some filenames or the --recursive option?
> 
> Thanks,
>   -Yuri


I hope you've got this figured out by now, but I didn't see any responses
to your question.  The answer is: you need to specify the recursive
option.  The -a option you used in the first command implies it, but you
left it out of the second command.

- Dave Dykstra