Problems with remote rsync

Question

I have trouble using rsync to backup my local home folder to a remote server (chh2). When I type the following command:

  rsync -v -e ssh /home/* chh2@192.168.1.67:~/Documents/chh1_backup

I get the following error:

  Warning: No xauth data; using fake authentication data for X11    
  forwarding.
  skipping directory chh1
  sent 16 bytes  received 12 bytes  18.67 bytes/sec
  total size is 0  speedup is 0.00

I have no trouble establishing a connection with ssh -X chh2@192.168.1.67 nor do I have any trouble with scp.

I have tried all combinations of the following lines in /etc/ssh/config:

 #   ForwardAgent no 
     ForwardX11 yes
 #   ForwardX11Trusted yes

and none of them made any difference. Does anyone know how to put me on the right path with this? Much appreciated!

Answer 1

You're seeing skipping directory chh1 because rsync does not recurse into directories by default. Add the -r option to recurse, or even better, -a (equivalent to -rlptgoD), which preserves a bunch of metadata to put into the copy.

^{Explanation of rsync -rlptgoD:}