I didn't want to put this in Bugzilla. Hopefully the OP will see it on this list.
I'm not sure if you have the same problem I had, but it sure looks like it: I ran into something very similar to this around a year ago. My script was building the rsync command and when I didn't want a dry run, the first parameter became "". That ended up (erroneously) adding the current directory to my sources to back up. I posted on this list and was told essentially (much more politely) - "It's not a bug, it's a feature." But, a very kind and very knowledgeable soul (01/24/2013 05:58 PM, Volker Kuhlmann) showed me how to avoid it - and make my bash code a lot better at the same time! Here are the essential snips of how to avoid problems like this: ... RSYNC_OPTIONS=( ${DRY_RUN} -avushi ${DELETE} ${EXCLUDES} --stats --progress ) ... eval rsync "${RSYNC_OPTIONS[@]}" ... When you do it like this - using a bash array with eval - (changing all the values to match your requirements), all the null strings just go away! It makes it easy to cleanly and clearly build a complex argument list piece by piece in your script with as much logic as needed to make sure that things are built correctly. The final command is built in only one place, so any changes to parameters which are relatively constant only have to be done in that one place, not in many similar command invocations where a common change might be missed in one or more instances. It also makes the code way easier to read and maintain. I am using this technique in other applications as well. Joe On 11/21/2014 02:46 AM, samba-b...@samba.org wrote: > https://bugzilla.samba.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10951 > > Bug ID: 10951 > Summary: Emtpy parameter triggers unwanted behavior, but no > error message > Product: rsync > Version: 3.1.0 > Hardware: x64 > OS: Linux > Status: NEW > Severity: major > Priority: P5 > Component: core > Assignee: way...@samba.org > Reporter: st...@wis.no > QA Contact: rsync...@samba.org > > If you add a parameter (ex. --exclude <path>) to the rsync command without a > value, you get some unwanted behavior running the command. No error message > will be triggered, and no output will be shown (especially if running the > command from remote server through a SSH session). > > We were running the following command for backup of a remote server: > "/usr/bin/ssh -x -l backuppc <servername>.<domain>.lan sudo /usr/bin/rsync > --numeric-ids --perms --owner --group -D --links --hard-links --times > --block-size=2048 --recursive / --exclude --exclude /mnt --exclude > /var/log/tomcat6" > > If you check after the "--recursive /" there is two "--exclude" and the first > one without a value. If we run this command there is no output from rsync > before the ssh session outputs a "pipe is broken" message. The rsync continues > to run on the ssh session. There is no output running the command locally > either. > > With the emtpy "--exclude", and a new "--exclude" after the empty one, it > seems > like rsync interpits the two exclude folders as destination for > syncronization. > We also seem to get at loop when syncing the /mnt folder aswell, due to > syncronization of itself into itself (this is not testet since this happend on > a production server). > > When we ran the command written futher up in this text, we got a copy of / > (root) in both "/mnt" and "/var/log/tomcat6". In "/mnt" we also got many > subfolders with their own copies of the root, all folder in root down to the > "/mnt" folder. Seems to be looping. > -- Please use reply-all for most replies to avoid omitting the mailing list. To unsubscribe or change options: https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/rsync Before posting, read: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html