question

[Wayne Davison]

> rsync -e "ssh -i key" ..etc etc does not work

The best thing you can do is to use -vv to see what command rsync is
running and then try a similar command (e.g. use "rsync --help" instead
of the server command) to see what is going wrong with your ssh setup.
Also, avoid a path that requires shell-expansion (such as ~/key) since
the value you specify isn't going to be twiddled by a shell.

For example, you might end up runing something like this:

    ssh -i /path/key remotehost rsync --help

As long as that works, you should be able to take the ssh command
(without the host) and use it with rsync's -e option.

(Aside:  -e and --rsh are two aliases for the same option, so they're
handled identically inside rsync.)

..wayne..