Why cwRsync doesn't work on Windows?

I'm trying to run rsync on Windows with the cwrsync port.

I'm issuing the following command (note that this is just a dry run):

rsync -nPaAz [email protected]:/home/foobar/webapps/barbaz/ C:\\mybackupfolder\

but I get the following error

The source and destination cannot both be remote.
rsync error: syntax or usage error (code 1) at main.c(1148) [Receiver=3.0.8]

Could someone point me in the right direction?

Solution 1:

For the destination try using:

/cygdrive/c/mybackupfolder/

Note that a colon tells rsync that the location is remote.

Solution 2:

My environment: Windows 10, in powershell. Solution also worked in a DOS prompt.

The problem is caused by the : after the drive letters, which makes it look like a hostname specification. You have to use an alternative notation.

I was using rsync installed via Chocolatey, so no cygwin drives.

Windows 10 lets me do this on powershell:

dir //localhost/C$

so, this command, run in a Windows 10 powershell, worked just fine for me, after running into same exact problem.

rsync -av //localhost/d$/home/work/fb460.winbup/src //localhost/d$/home/work/fb460.winbup/tgt

Solution 3:

Got here from a similar problem with rsync for Windows.

Instead of using the path, just make a .bat file that uses CD C:\whereto\ then in the rsync command just use . as the directory to save to.

Example (something.bat):

@echo off  
cd C:\mybackupfolder\  
rsync -nPaAz [email protected]:/home/foobar/webapps/barbaz/ .