rsync and Perl programming

[Jim Salter]

Hi everybody -

I'm trying to write a Perl wrapper for some rsync tasks that need doing. 
  Problem is, there's some sort of odd interaction going on between Perl 
and the daemon mode communication for the rsync client, and I'm at my 
wit's end in trying to figure it out.

Here's the Perl script:

#####################################################
#####################################################
#!/usr/bin/perl
$rsync_cmd = "/usr/local/bin/rsync -a --progress 
--password-file=/usr/local/etc/rsyncd.passwd 
ph34r at localhost::samba/rsynctestfiles /usr/share/smbshare/rsynctestfiles";

$pid = open(PH, "$rsync_cmd 2>&1 |");     # with an openpipe
while (<PH>) {                            # plus a read
         print $_;
}

print "finished\n";


#####################################################
#####################################################



When I run the script, here is the output I get:


#####################################################
#####################################################

building file list ...
link_stat 
"/usr/share/smbshare/Work/rsync-backup-v2/ph34r/rsynctestfiles" failed: 
No such file or directory
0 files to consider

wrote 25 bytes  read 20 bytes  90.00 bytes/sec
total size is 0  speedup is 0.00
rsync error: some files could not be transferred (code 23) at main.c(632)
finished


#####################################################
#####################################################

Now the odd thing is, I can run the rsync command in $rsync_cmd just 
fine from the shell - it rsyncs the directories in question without 
problem.  And if I set $rsync_cmd to something using a local path (no 
daemon-mode communication) for both source and target, it will run as 
expected in my Perl script too.

I'm only having the odd problem shown when using daemon mode in my Perl 
wrapper.  The system being used is running FreeBSD 5.1, and I have the 
problem when running either rsync 2.6.0 from FreeBSD's ports tree or 
2.6.2 downloaded straight from the rsync site and compiled.

Any ideas?  (Help me, help me obi-Wayne...)

Jim Salter
JRS Systems