Re: [tlug] Rsync password usage

[Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com>]

On Fri, 18 Mar 2005 18:08:04 +0900 (JST), Tod McQuillin
<devin@example.com> wrote:

> On Fri, 18 Mar 2005, Charles Muller wrote:
> 
> > So I made the file /home/chuck/.pairpass and then tried
> >
> >     rsync --delete --password-file=/home/chuck/.pairpass -ruvptl
> >     /mnt/win_d/docs/www.acmuller.net/public_html/test
> >     acmuller@example.com:public_html
>
> It isn't rsync that's asking for a password, it's ssh (or rsh).

Mauro and Todd are right on. In more detail, here is what you need to do:

1. Follow the steps in the "Quick-N-Dirty Guide to Using OpenSSH Keypair 
   Authentication". [1] Or alternately, check out ESR's
ssh-installkeys, [2] a Python
   script that automates the process. 
2. Make sure you can ssh from the machine where you are running the
cron job to your
   webserver, without being prompted for a password.
3. Change your rsync line to:
    rsync --delete -ruvptl -e ssh \
    /mnt/win_d/docs/www.acmuller.net/public_html/test \
    acmuller@example.com:public_html
4. [Optional] Check out rdiff-backup, [3] a tool that uses librsync to
generate differential
   backups. I run it out of cron every night to do my backups, and
burn a DVD once a
   week. If interested, I can provide more information on how I do this.

Cheers,
Josh

[1] http://www.qnd-guides.net/qnd-ssh-keypair
[2] http://www.catb.org/~esr/ssh-installkeys/
[3] http://www.nongnu.org/rdiff-backup/