Rsync from godaddy to OS X

Question

I would like to use rsync to backup my website to my local computer (OS X). I started of with this guide and got pretty far.

I use the following rsync-line:

rsync -PzrlptgD --del --delete-excluded -r --rsync-path=~/bin/rsync user@server:~/ /local/backup/folder/

I wanted to use the -a option (same as rlptgoD) but it crashes as soon as I use the -o flag.

receiving file list ... 
rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (8 bytes received so far) [receiver]
rsync error: unexplained error (code 255) at /SourceCache/rsync/rsync-42/rsync/io.c(452) [receiver=2.6.9]

If I skip the --owner flag it copies the files but I'm not really sure what difference it makes (I've tried to read up on it but found nothing)

Should I just skip using the --owner flag? Or have I done any other mistake?

Thanks in advance

//OL

Answer 1

-o preserves the ownership of the file -- that is, the numeric ID used to identify the owner of the file is copied and applied to the destination file. This only makes sense if the source and destination machines have the same owner ID value for a given user. This is almost certainly not the case here, so you don't want to use -o.

-o only works when you're running as the super-user, anyway (only the super-user can change the ownership of a file).