I've never seen this one before. I'm using rsync 2.6.2 on both ends. Server (Athlon, 768MB RAM) checks out just fine. The only anomoly appears to be that this process has been running for 248268.43 seconds (this is not unexpected with this particular host we're backing up). Commandline: /usr/bin/time -p /usr/bin/rsync -e /usr/bin/ssh --archive --compress --sparse --stats --delete --numeric-ids --partial --exclude "/proc" --exclude "/mnt" xxx.example.com:/ /storage/xxx.example.com/ 1>&2 Error message: rsync: writefd_unbuffered failed to write 4092 bytes: phase "unknown": Broken pipe rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (7054382421 bytes read so far) rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) at io.c(836) rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) at io.c(342) Command exited with non-zero status 12 real 248268.43 user 464.11 sys 124.48 -- http://www.quantumlinux.com Quantum Linux Laboratories, LLC. ACCELERATING Business with Open Technology "The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit." - FDR