rsync - Mar 2003 - Bug when using cygwin version of rsync (forwarded to rsync list)

I've been recommended to forward this to the rsync list for possible
incorporation into the main code. Both the problem and solution are
described. Please Cc me with any replies since I'm not subscribed to this
list. Thanks.

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Original message
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I'm using the cygwin version of rsync (2.5.5) and think I've found a bug
which is harmless under unix but fatal to cygwin. The bug is also in the
latest source version I could find (2.5.6).

If I'm trying to take a file from (windows-style) \\share\directory\filename
I would specify something like
rsync //share/directory/filename destination
However, there is special handling in rsync to stop // at the beginning of a
filename, presumably to cope with unix systems which can't understand the
convention. Specifically, in syscall.c, about line 93, in the do_open()
function, the first / is skipped over in this case.

The result of this as I have seen it is that rsync will correctly identify
all files in a directory that need to be copied, but complains that none of
them exist (since do_open() is only relevant to the remote-syncing function,
not directory listing). I can overcome it by saying something like
rsync ///share/directory/filename destination
but that seems a bit silly.

My solution would be to include a cygwin-specific patch for this line,
rather than asking the rsync project to patch their code, but cygwin
developers may disagree.

Please Cc me at the above address in any replies since I don't subscribe to
the list (too high volume for this address I'm afraid).

Thanks,
-Dave



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