HTTP encapsulated rsync??

Aaron W Morris
Tue, 17 Apr 2007 17:27:28 -0000

On 4/17/07, Robert Denton <robert@headsprout.com>
wrote:
> Hi folks, I am hoping someone here can offer some suggestions.  Here
> is my situation:
>
> I am using rsync over the internet for several hundred clients to
> keep them in sync with a master repository of files.  The rsync
> daemon is listening on port 80, because most of the clients are
> behind firewalls that only allow outbound port 80 (and other common
> ports).  This works fine for most of them but not all.
>
> The trouble is that some of them are also behind devices that do not
> allow non-http traffic on port 80 and thus block the rsync.
> Therefore, I am looking for a way to use http encapsulation as a
> means to bypass the blocking devices. I have seen a few scattered
> queries around the net asking similar questions but I have not seen
> any good solutions offered.
>
> One person suggested that http-tunnel be used but this is not a very
> elegant solution and I would like to avoid it if at all possible. If
> the tunnel were to hang or sever then I would have a difficult time
> correcting it since I do not have direct access to many of the
> clients. Does anyone here have any ideas?  Surely I am not the first
> person to ask this question.  Thanks!!
>
> Robert

You can use an HTTP proxy.  Look at the RSYNC_PROXY environment
variable in the man page.

--
Aaron W Morris (decep)