rsync 2.5.6 timeout bug

[Alan Burlison]

jw schultz wrote:

>>Anyone have any clues as to why this failure might be happening, or how I 
>>might narrow it down?  I was wondering if the packets were being fragmented 
>>between the client/server, and if that could be causing problems.
> 
> Is there any chance there is a firewall enforcing a timeout;
> possibly a "personal" firewall on the client machine?  If it
> were the client code timing out i think there would be an
> error message.  What you describe looks like the connection
> is being closed from the client end, not a timeout in the
> client code.

The client is a Solaris box - the firewall is some sort of Cisco gubbins at 
the far end of our ATM line, and I forgot to mention that I'm using 
$RSYNC_PROXY to tunnel out over HTTP on port 8080.  I asked our networking 
folks if they have set some sort of timeout within the firewall complex, and 
they assured me they haven't.  However, having exhausted all other possible 
avenues, I synced the clocks on the client & server machines with ntp, and 
snooped the traffic from both ends of the connection, i.e. either side of 
the corporate firewall.  The FIN packets are coming from the firewall 
machines, not the rsync client or server, so something within the firewall 
conplex is timing out and dropping the connection.  Bah.

Anyway, many thanks for the help and suggestions, at least I now have 
definitive proof of what the problem is.

-- 
Alan Burlison
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