rsync without a shell

[Andrew Mathews]

Net Llama! wrote:
<snip>
>>>>>I'm trying to setup rsync over ssh without giving the user a shell
>>>>>account.  Unfortunately, setting the user's shell to /bin/false prevents
>>>>>the rsync from running, as it fails with this error:
>>>>>rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (0 bytes read so far)
>>>>>rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12)
<snip>
>> From the rsync man page:
>>You can also specify an alternative to rsh, either by using the -e
>>command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
>>One common substitute is to use ssh, which  offers  a  high  degree  of
>>security.
>>[....]
>>RSYNC_RSH
>>The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you  to  override  the
>>default  shell used as the transport for rsync. This can be used
>>instead of the -e option.
>>Have you tried this?
> 
> 
> I think so, but i don'[ understand what its asking me to do.  I've set
> RSYNC_RSH=ssh
> but that's prolly not right. Would i set it to /sbin/nologin ?
> 

I believe so. I'm pondering whether rsync would need to read from stdin 
which would increase the difficulty of using an account without a shell. 
Hmmm....

-- 
Andrew Mathews
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