"address" option in rsyncd.conf

[Paul Slootman]

I wanted to restrict rsync to listen only on one IP address on a
multi-homed system.  I put an "address aa.bb.cc.dd" option in the
(single) module definition, as the manpage shows that "address" is a
module option, not a global one. However, lsof showed that rsync had
bound to * instead of the specified IP address.
Moving the "address" line to the global part did the right thing.

On the one hand I understand the current behaviour (restricting the
use of a specific module to one of the addresses, thus letting one
network access one module and another network access another module),
however in the case of a single module (or perhaps when all modules have
the same "address" line), it would make sense to effectively promote the
module definition to a global one.

In short, the behaviour was unexpected at first sight, but thinking
about it, it is actually logical. Maybe the manpage's description of the
"address" option should be expanded a bit, e.g. add this line:

    To make the rsync daemon listen to a single IP address, put the
    "address" option in the global section (even if there's only one
    option).


Paul Slootman