Setting rsync --password-file option is not working

Question

I'm using rsync to repeatedly send a folder from source to destination. When using a straight bash command, it prompts for a password. In order to prevent the prompting of a password, I've made a simple cpp program that calls a bash script of rsync to repeatedly send the folder to the destination by doing fork and exec. I tried this answer, but it returns an error:

sudo rsync $args --password-file=rsync_pass -avz /home/user/folder/checkpoints/$1 [email protected]::checkpoints/$1

rsync: failed to connect to 192.xxx.xxx.xxx (192.xxx.xxx.xxx): Connection refused (111)
rsync error: error in socket IO (code 10) at clientserver.c(127) [sender=3.1.3]

Note: I only want to use the --password-file option

I have checked that the rsync daemon is running on the destination side by running the command: sudo systemctl status rsync. Here's my rsyncd.conf

pid file = /var/run/rsyncd.pid
lock file = /var/run/rsync.lock
log file = /var/log/rsync.log
port = 12000

[files]
path = /home/public_rsync
comment = RSYNC FILES
read only = true
timeout = 300

How do I get this working?

Answer 1

The connection was refused because you were using a non-standard rsync port, see the comments by user roaima.

For simplicity, I expect user public_rsync with home directory /home/public_rsync exists on the destination host (192.xxx.xxx.xxx, where the daemon is running) and the service is not blocked by your firewall.

Start with this sample /etc/rsyncd.conf (passwords are enabled later):

pid file = /var/run/rsyncd.pid
lock file = /var/run/rsync.lock
log file = /var/log/rsync.log

[checkpoints]
path = /home/public_rsync/checkpoints
comment = RSYNC FILES
read only = false
uid = public_rsync
gid = public_rsync
#auth users = secondaryvm
#secrets file = /etc/rsyncd.secrets
timeout = 300

Explanation:

• remove port = 12000 to use default port 873
• change module name from [files] to [checkpoints]
• change the path to the module directory to /home/public_rsync/checkpoints
• change read only = true to false to be able to push files to the server
• add uid / gid to use this username / group when transferring files

Then restart the server:

sudo systemctl restart rsync

---

1. Test rsync on the destination host as user public_rsync

1. List all listable modules with rsync localhost::, it should return the module name and the description:

   [email protected]:~$ rsync localhost::
   checkpoints      RSYNC FILES
   

2. Create directory checkpoints and a test file in this directory:

   [email protected]:~$ mkdir ~/checkpoints
   [email protected]:~$ echo helloworld > ~/checkpoints/helloworld.txt
   

3. List all files of our module:

   [email protected]:~$ rsync localhost::checkpoints
   drwxrwxr-x          4,096 2020/10/30 18:26:01 .
   -rw-rw-r--             11 2020/10/30 18:26:01 helloworld.txt
   

---

2. Test rsync from the source host, make sure pull/push are working

1. Test pull:

   $ rsync 192.xxx.xxx.xxx::checkpoints/helloworld.txt /tmp/
   $ cat /tmp/helloworld.txt
   helloworld
   

2. Test push:

   $ rsync /tmp/helloworld.txt 192.xxx.xxx.xxx::checkpoints/helloworld_push.txt
   

3. List files of module checkpoints again:

   $ rsync 192.xxx.xxx.xxx::checkpoints
   drwxrwxr-x          4,096 2020/10/30 18:29:06 .
   -rw-rw-r--             11 2020/10/30 18:26:01 helloworld.txt
   -rw-r--r--             11 2020/10/30 18:29:06 helloworld_push.txt
   

---

3. Enable authentication

Now that we know rsync works as expected, enable authentication on the destination host:

1. Create text file /etc/rsyncd.secrets with username and password for user secondaryvm (the username is arbitrary, no user account needed):

   [email protected]:~$ sudo tee /etc/rsyncd.secrets > /dev/null <<'EOF'
   secondaryvm:12345
   EOF
   [email protected]:~$ sudo chmod 600 /etc/rsyncd.secrets
   

2. Uncomment auth users and secrets file in /etc/rsyncd.conf, restart the server:

   [email protected]:~$ sudo systemctl restart rsync
   

---

4. Test authentication (from source host)

Connecting without credentials should not be possibly any more, you're supposed to enter a password:

$ rsync 192.xxx.xxx.xxx::checkpoints
Password:
@ERROR: auth failed on module checkpoints
rsync error: error starting client-server protocol (code 5) at main.c(1675) [Receiver=3.1.3]

Provide username and password for the connection, e.g.

$ echo '12345' > rsync_pass
$ chmod 600 rsync_pass
$ rsync --password-file=rsync_pass [email protected]::checkpoints

If anything doesn't work, add verbosity with option -v and check the daemon log /var/log/rsync.log.