[CentOS] unison versus rsync

[Bill Campbell]

On Thu, Jan 14, 2010, Joseph L. Casale wrote:
>>Another feature of rsync modules that can be useful is that each module can
>>specify a user and group thus one can rsync user directories between
>>systems where the user names are the same but uid and gid may differ.
>
>I have been looking at this all morning. Is there any way to auth with keys
>or something unique so I can script this securely? Iiuc, the only auth is done
>through these rsync user/pass pairs unless you do it with hosts etc.

Using rsync in daemon mode with modules requires no authentication if you
are comfortable with restricting access to each module by IP address or
CIDR block.  The rsync man page also says:

     Some modules on the remote daemon may require  authentication.
     If  so, you  will receive a password prompt when you connect.
     You can avoid the password prompt by setting the environment
     variable RSYNC_PASSWORD  to the password you want to use or
     using the --password-file option. This may be useful when
     scripting rsync.

Bill
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