Rsync Problems

[Dave Dykstra]

On Mon, Jan 07, 2002 at 12:27:55PM -0500, Hunter French wrote:
> 
> I am having problems with Rsync running between 2 FreeBSD computers.  We
> are trying to use it to backup a directory on the primary server
> /var/mail (using a pull method).  The configuration on the primary
> server (Polaris) should be ok as it was running rsync previously before
> our client server was rebuilt. On the client server (Mira) we have
> installed rsync to the /usr/local/bin directory and have written the
> following script to run it from the client:
> 
> -------------
> #!/bin/sh
> export PATH=$PATH:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/etc
> 
> /usr/local/bin/rsync -e ssh -avzr polaris.scasd.k12.pa.us:/var/mail
> /var/backup/mail
> -------------
> 
> If I run this script by typing "./rsync.mail.script.sh" everything seems
> to work as it displays the following:
> 
> -------------
> mira# ./rsync.mail.script.sh
> receiving file list ... done
> mail/
> mail/agw11
> mail/akf12
> mail/alg13
> mail/avr12
> mail/axg12
> mail/bab12
> mail/bav11
> mail/bbh12
> mail/bgp11
> mail/bls12
> ....until the end of the directories...
> --------------
> 
> I placed a file in the /var/mail directory of the primary server called
> test.hunter.jan7 and it did not copy over with the directories.  I am
> unsure why it did not copy over.

That doesn't make any sense, I would doublecheck that if I were you.


> However, when I try to run this from cron it does not work.  It merely
> runs (rsync and ssh are active in top) but nothing happens, no files are
> copied and nothing seems to change.  Our cron settings are:
> 
> --------------
> # /var/mail backup
> 36	11	*	*	*	root
> /etc/rsync.mail.script.sh
> --------------
> 
> Does anyone have an idea of what we are doing wrong?  I get no error
> messages in verbose mode when running it myself.


What does the output of the script look like?  Usually cron mails the
results to the root login.  Most likely you've got an SSH authentication
problem. 

- Dave Dykstra