rsync - Mar 2009 - Rsyncd and Environmental Paths

I have this in my rsync.conf
[backup]
    path = /home/$USER/backup
    use chroot = no
    monge symlinks = no
    uid = wendell
    gid = wendell
    read only = no
    list = yes
    auth users = wendell
    secrets file = /etc/rsyncd.secrets
But rsync doesn't seem to interpret the $USER. I've also tried this with
$HOME and '~' with no luck. I want to be able to back up to the folder
'backup' that will be in the users homefolder when a user is backing up
remotely to the rsync daemon.

How can I do this?
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On Mon, 2009-03-16 at 16:43 -0400, Jerome Hollon wrote:
> I have this in my rsync.conf
> [backup]
>     path = /home/$USER/backup
>     use chroot = no
>     monge symlinks = no
>     uid = wendell
>     gid = wendell
>     read only = no
>     list = yes
>     auth users = wendell
>     secrets file = /etc/rsyncd.secrets
> But rsync doesn't seem to interpret the $USER. I've also tried this
> with $HOME and '~' with no luck. I want to be able to back up to
the
> folder 'backup' that will be in the users homefolder when a user is
> backing up remotely to the rsync daemon.
> 
> How can I do this?
Rsync does not perform any kind of expansion on module paths.  The $USER
environment variable would not be useful anyway (at least for a
listening daemon) because it refers to the user running the daemon, not
the client.

IMO, having a module do completely different things depending on who
accesses it is dodgy.  I recommend using a separate module for each
user.  You can generate the configuration automatically with m4:

        define(`module', `
        [backup-$1]
            path = /home/$USER/backup
            use chroot = no
            monge symlinks = no
            uid = $1
            gid = $1
            read only = no
            list = yes
            auth users = $1
            secrets file = /etc/rsyncd.secrets
        ')
        
        module(`wendell')
        module(`jerome')

(See also
http://lists.samba.org/archive/rsync/2007-January/017014.html .)

If your users have unrestricted shell accounts on the backup server, it
may be appropriate to use plain rsync over ssh rather than a daemon.

-- 
Matt

On 16-Mar-2009, at 14:43, Jerome Hollon wrote:
> I have this in my rsync.conf
> [backup]
>    path = /home/$USER/backup
>    use chroot = no
>    monge symlinks = no
>    uid = wendell
>    gid = wendell
>    read only = no
>    list = yes
>    auth users = wendell
>    secrets file = /etc/rsyncd.secrets
> But rsync doesn't seem to interpret the $USER. I've also tried this
> with $HOME and '~' with no luck.
Yeah, that's never going to work.
> I want to be able to back up to the folder 'backup' that will be in
> the users homefolder when a user is backing up remotely to the rsync  
> daemon.
but the user is 'wendell' so put in the path to wendell's home.

rsync.conf doesn't support calls out to authentication modules, so  
there's no way to make this work.  If you want each user to be able to  
access their own backup location, you need a block for each user:

[backup-wendell]
  path = /home/wendell/backup
  etc..

[backup-wallace]
  path = /home/wallacebackup
  etc..

[backup-gromit]
  path = /home/gromit/backup
  etc..


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	lemonade and the morning lasted all day, all day.
	And through an open window came like Sinatra in a
	younger day pushing the town away