Re: Help with rsync

On Tue, 2005-03-08 at 21:55 +0000, mlsmith59 wrote:

>  Rsync workes but I can't get it to preserve 
> owner/group.  The receiving machine always ends up with 
> nobody/nobody.

As you may know, rsync can run in two modes: as a server on a dedicated
TCP port (which is what you are doing), or by using some rsh/ssh-like
remote shell protocol as a transport layer.  To get the behavior you
want, you need to be using ssh (or rsh, but that is a very bad idea) as
the transport for rsync.

An rsync server will always create files with the uid it is running as,
or if it is root, the uid set in rsyncd.conf (which defaults to nobody).
The reason for this is obvious when you think about it: anyone can
connect to an rsync server and ask to upload a file owned by root, or
even ask for it to be owned by root, setuid and world-executable. If
this was allowed, it would subvert the normal permissions mechanism on
the system running rsync.

Even allowing write access at all via an rsync server is unsafe, as it
exposes your machine to DoS attacks aimed at consuming all disk space
available to the rsync server.

In short, disable your rsync server and set up openssh instead.

-- 
Josh Parsons
Philosophy Department
1238 Social Sciences and Humanities Bldg.
University of California
Davis, CA 95616-8673
USA
 
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html



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