rsync - Sep 2006 - rsyncing as root when root login is disabled?

I'm trying to do a simple rsync:

rsync -av admin@mydomain.com:/backup .

But a number of files in /backup are readable only by
root, and hence rsync gives these errors:

sync: send_files failed to open
"/backup/etc/mail/virtusertable.db": Permission denied
(13)

Since root login is disabled, I can't simple do
'root@mydomain.com'. I searched a bit and saw this:

rsync -av --rsync-path='sudo path'
admin@mydomain.com:/backup .

I tried it -- rsync asks for my password, but then
doesn't output anything after many minutes (after
which I kill it).

So, how can I rsync files from my remote server so all
the files are readable and the existing permissions
get preserved (e.g. not having to do 'chmod -R a+r
/backup'.

Thanks,
Joe

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Joe Ruby wrote:
> I'm trying to do a simple rsync:
> 
> rsync -av admin@mydomain.com:/backup .
> 
> But a number of files in /backup are readable only by
> root, and hence rsync gives these errors:
> 
> sync: send_files failed to open
> "/backup/etc/mail/virtusertable.db": Permission denied
> (13)
> 
> Since root login is disabled, I can't simple do
> 'root@mydomain.com'. I searched a bit and saw this:
> 
> rsync -av --rsync-path='sudo path'
> admin@mydomain.com:/backup .
> 
> I tried it -- rsync asks for my password, but then
> doesn't output anything after many minutes (after
> which I kill it).
> 
> So, how can I rsync files from my remote server so all
> the files are readable and the existing permissions
> get preserved (e.g. not having to do 'chmod -R a+r
> /backup'.
Perhaps what you have shown in your email is incomplete, but based on what you 
have written, you have replaced the remote rsync with sudo. Instead you need to 
invoke rsync using sudo by giving a command to sudo. You might be able to do 
that using the --rsync-path argument like --rsync-path='<sudo path>
rsync', I
have not tried it. Or you could write a wrapper. Google "rsync
wrapper".

Joe Ruby wrote:
> I'm trying to do a simple rsync:
> 
> rsync -av admin at mydomain.com:/backup .
> 
> But a number of files in /backup are readable only
by
> root, and hence rsync gives these errors:
> 
> sync: send_files failed to open
> "/backup/etc/mail/virtusertable.db": Permission
denied
> (13)
> 
> Since root login is disabled, I can't simple do
> 'root at mydomain.com'. I searched a bit and saw
this:
> 
> rsync -av --rsync-path='sudo path'
> admin at mydomain.com:/backup .
> 
> I tried it -- rsync asks for my password, but then
> doesn't output anything after many minutes (after
> which I kill it).
> 
> So, how can I rsync files from my remote server so
all
> the files are readable and the existing permissions
> get preserved (e.g. not having to do 'chmod -R a+r
> /backup'.
Perhaps what you have shown in your email is
incomplete, but based on what you 
have written, you have replaced the remote rsync with
sudo. Instead you need to 
invoke rsync using sudo by giving a command to sudo.
You might be able to do 
that using the --rsync-path argument like
--rsync-path='<sudo path> rsync', I 
have not tried it. Or you could write a wrapper.
Google "rsync wrapper".

---

I tried again:

$ rsync -av --progress --rsync-path='sudo
/usr/bin/rsync' admin@mydomain.com:/backup/var var
Password:12345

rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (0 bytes
received so far) [receiver]
rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code
12) at /SourceCache/rsync/rsync-24/rsync/io.c(359)
$ 12345
-bash: 12345: command not found

I also Googled for 'rsync wrapper', but haven't found
anything yet that seems to address the problem I'm
having.

Joe

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