rsync not writing files

Question

I'm trying to setup rsync to backup a remote directory to my local drive.

I cd to the directory that I want to pull the files to, then I enter:

rsync -vrtW account@remote.com:~/public_html

I enter the password then it starts running. I get all the files listed, but none of them actually transfer. What am I missing?

Thanks

Answer 1

If that's really your commandline, the rsync manpage has your answer:

SYNOPSIS
Local: rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [DEST]

Access via remote shell:
Pull: rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST:SRC... [DEST]
Push: rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST:DEST

[...]

Usages with just one SRC arg and no DEST arg will list the source files instead of copying.

Note the last line. This is the command you need to use (note the "." at the end).

rsync -vrtW account@remote.com:~/public_html .