rsync - Sep 2009 - DO NOT REPLY [Bug 6695] New: whitespace problem in directory paths; I know of no work-around

https://bugzilla.samba.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6695

           Summary: whitespace problem in directory paths; I know of no
                    work-around
           Product: rsync
           Version: 3.0.6
          Platform: Other
        OS/Version: Linux
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P3
         Component: core
        AssignedTo: wayned at samba.org
        ReportedBy: srn at coolheads.com
         QAContact: rsync-qa at samba.org


## rsync 3.0.6 whitespace bug.  
## reported by Steve Newcomb, srn at coolheads.com
## 2009-09-06.

## I haven't figured out any way to work around this problem:
## Apparently rsync can't handle whitespace in the source directory
## path, nor in the --backup-dir= value.  The --files-from argument
## doesn't help.  (It would help if I could put an absolute path in
## the --files-from file, maybe, but that still wouldn't fix all the
## issues, apparently.)

## first the preliminaries:
root at prilicla:/usr/local/ch-tools# /usr/local/bin/rsync --version
rsync  version 3.0.6  protocol version 30
Copyright (C) 1996-2009 by Andrew Tridgell, Wayne Davison, and others.
Web site: http://rsync.samba.org/
Capabilities:
    64-bit files, 64-bit inums, 32-bit timestamps, 64-bit long ints,
    socketpairs, hardlinks, symlinks, IPv6, batchfiles, inplace,
    append, no ACLs, xattrs, iconv, symtimes

rsync comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.  This is free software, and you
are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.  See the GNU
General Public Licence for details.


root at prilicla:/usr/local/ch-tools# ssh xylene 'ls
/nobackup/prilicla-backup/*Wind*'
/nobackup/prilicla-backup/prilicla-_,.,_home_,.,_vtn_,.,_vmware_,.,_Windows
## The above directory is wrongly named.  The name is truncated; it
## was supposed to be "...Windows XP Professional...".  The
## wrongly-named directory was created by the last rsync run due to
## the bug I'm demonstrating for you here.

## So let's get rid of it and demonstrate the problem again...
root at prilicla:/usr/local/ch-tools# ssh xylene 'rm -rf
/nobackup/prilicla-backup/*Wind*'

## Verify that it's really gone...
root at prilicla:/usr/local/ch-tools# ssh xylene 'ls
/nobackup/prilicla-backup/*Wind*'
ls: cannot access /nobackup/prilicla-backup/*Wind*: No such file or directory

## So here's the rsync command that demonstrates the bug:
root at prilicla:/usr/local/ch-tools# /usr/local/bin/rsync \
-a -z -H -v -v --delete-during --delete-excluded --force --backup \
--backup-dir=/nobackup/prilicla-backup/prilicla-_,.,_home_,.,_vtn_,.,_vmware_,.,_Windows_XP_Professional_,.,_Windows_XP_Professional-flat.vmdk-previous
\
--files-from=/tmp/zzz \
--no-dirs --recursive --suffix=-20090906-204639 \
'/home/vtn/vmware/Windows XP Professional' \
'xylene:/nobackup/prilicla-backup/prilicla-_,.,_home_,.,_vtn_,.,_vmware_,.,_Windows
XP Professional_,.,_Windows XP Professional-flat.vmdk'

## here's the output from rsync:
backup_dir is
/nobackup/prilicla-backup/prilicla-_,.,_home_,.,_vtn_,.,_vmware_,.,_Windows_XP_Professional_,.,_Windows_XP_Professional-flat.vmdk-previous/
## That's correct, but only because I replaced the spaces in the
--backup-dirvalue.
## If I don't replace the spaces, this path is truncated, too.

opening connection using: ssh xylene rsync --server -vvblHogDtprRze.iLs
--backup-dir
/nobackup/prilicla-backup/prilicla-_,.,_home_,.,_vtn_,.,_vmware_,.,_Windows_XP_Professional_,.,_Windows_XP_Professional-flat.vmdk-previous
--suffix=-20090906-204639 --delete-during --delete-excluded --force .
"/nobackup/prilicla-backup/prilicla-_,.,_home_,.,_vtn_,.,_vmware_,.,_Windows
XP
Professional_,.,_Windows XP Professional-flat.vmdk" 

backup_dir is
/nobackup/prilicla-backup/prilicla-_,.,_home_,.,_vtn_,.,_vmware_,.,_Windows_XP_Professional_,.,_Windows_XP_Professional-flat.vmdk-previous/
## Not sure why this information is repeated.

sending incremental file list
delta-transmission enabled
Windows XP Professional-flat.vmdk
total: matches=0  hash_hits=0  false_alarms=0 data=450

sent 410 bytes  received 31 bytes  882.00 bytes/sec
total size is 450  speedup is 1.02


## but now let's see what happened:
root at prilicla:/usr/local/ch-tools# ssh xylene 'ls
/nobackup/prilicla-backup/*Wind*'
/nobackup/prilicla-backup/prilicla-_,.,_home_,.,_vtn_,.,_vmware_,.,_Windows

## see, it made the copy in the wrong directory -- I mean, the name of the
directory
## in which it dumped the file is incorrect.

## And the file in the directory (not shown here) is misnamed, too, in
## the same way: the name is truncated at the first space.  I suspect
## that this file was overwritten several times, because several files
## in this directory have names that are identical if they are
## truncated at the first space.


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https://bugzilla.samba.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6695





------- Comment #1 from matt at mattmccutchen.net  2009-09-06 22:59 CST -------
--protect-args should fix the whitespace problems.

As for the repeated "backup_dir is..." verbose message: in rsync
3.0.6, the
client and server each print that message during option parsing.  This is no
cause for concern.  In the current development rsync, the message is printed
only once, by the receiver.


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https://bugzilla.samba.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6695


srn at coolheads.com changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Status|NEW                         |RESOLVED
         Resolution|                            |INVALID




------- Comment #2 from srn at coolheads.com  2009-09-07 07:40 CST -------
(In reply to comment #1)
> --protect-args should fix the whitespace problems.
Yes, that worked.  This is embarrassing because I'm an RTFM kind of guy, and
the manual page (which I have, in fact, read several times) does, in fact, say
this.  

Bravo and brava, all!  Rsync is a truly outstanding tool.


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