Why is rsync skipping the main directory

mac-osxrsync

I'm trying to use rync locally (on a windows machine) to a remote server (my osx box) in order to test a remote deploy build script. I've done rsync before just fine between 2 linux servers, but I'm having problems now. Here is the output:

$ rsync -v -e ssh myuser@10.86.83.11:/Library/WebServer/sites/staging/app1/ ./export

skipping directory /Library/WebServer/sites/staging/app1/.

sent 8 bytes  received 13 bytes  3.82 bytes/sec
total size is 0  speedup is 0.00

$

or

$ rsync -avz -e ssh myuser@10.86.83.11:/Library/WebServer/sites/staging/app1/ ./export

receiving file list ... done
./

sent 26 bytes  received 68 bytes  17.09 bytes/sec
total size is 0  speedup is 0.00


$

remote app1 directory is empty while local export directory has 4 sub directories and then a bunch of files in each of those

Best Answer

rsync -v -e ssh myuser@10.86.83.11:/Library/WebServer/sites/staging/app1/ ./export

You didn't give it any options to put it into recursive mode like -r or -a.

remote app1 directory is empty while local export directory has 4 sub directories and then a bunch of files in each of those

Do you have the options backwards here? The command should be rsync [source] [DESTINATION]. If the app1 directory is empty and you are trying to copy an empty directory then you aren't going to do anything useful.

Perhaps you need something like this instead?

rsync -avz ./export/  myuser@10.86.83.11:/Library/WebServer/sites/staging/app1/

Also:

  • You should almost always include a trailing slash on directories with rsync.
  • Almost every version of rsync released in the last 5-10 years defaults to using ssh has the remote transport. You probably don't have to specify the -e ssh.
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