Rsync error 'unexpected tag 93' when --log-file= parameter is present and run from crontab

[Matt McCutchen]

I have some general remarks about the problem; I hope Wayne will have
more specific ideas on how to debug it.

On Sun, 2009-01-11 at 13:33 +0100, Ernst J. Oud wrote:
> rsync -vrpth --stats --progress --log-file=/nslu2/rsync.log
> --log-file-format="%t %i %n%L"
> --include-from=/nslu2/rsync-files /share/hdd/data/public/Ernst/
> 192.168.1.69::rsync-nslu2

> However, if I include the same line in crontab, when executed the
> server reports an unexpected tag 93 and protocol errors in io.c at
> line 1169, which is the default handler for communication errors. This
> *only* happens when the --log-file=/nslu2/rsync.log line is present.

>  BTW; how can an error such as this be 'unexpected'? The tag '93' must
> mean something? Why can't the error handler be more specific about
> what caused this? At least some information in a client-server
> environment on which side generated the protocol error would help
> enormously!
 
The rsync protocol consists of messages of different types, and each
type is identified by a tag number.  The error means that an rsync got a
message with tag number 93, which is not one of the valid tags whose
meaning is defined by the protocol.  This is generally a result of the
protocol somehow getting out of sync. 

> It is hard to tell which side generates the error though. The error
> message appears in /var/log/messages at the server's end. The client's
> syslog does not report an error, it only reports that cron has started
> rsync.

The error should have a [client] or [server] prefix that tells you which
side detected the error.  That doesn't, however, reveal which side is at
fault for the protocol getting out of sync.

> I can live with the latter option since it also generates a log file
> by redirection of rsync's output but I prefer the --log-file= version
> since that allows me to change the log format.

You should be able to change the stdout format with --out-format.

-- 
Matt