rsync requires rsync-path when remote rsync is in path

I am quite confused as to why rsync requires --rsync-path flag even when remote rsync is in path.

Consider:

$ rsync -avze 'ssh -p 22' --delete public/ [email protected]:~/public_html
bash: /usr/local/bin/rsync: No such file or directory
rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (0 bytes received so far) [sender]
rsync error: remote command not found (code 127) at io.c(601) [sender=3.0.7]

then I tried adding --rsync-path

$ rsync -avze 'ssh -p 22' --rsync-path=/usr/bin/rsync  --delete public/ [email protected]:~/public_html
sending incremental file list
...

So, the first rsync was not successful because it was searching for rsync in /usr/local/bin but as soon as I pass the obvious path for rsync using --rsync-path, then it works.

Why is this? (this command line is the one issued by rake deploy in octopress)

Solution 1:

My memory is now quite fuzzy on this but the reason this was happening was that I used GNU stow on rsync at some point and created some symlinks that confused rsyncs location. This was sorted after much hair-pulling. I am now much lighter on hair but on the other hand I have a working rsync. That must be a win if you ask me.