'rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12)' using qdb.pl on OpenBSD
Recently, I recounted my experience installing and running my qdb.pl script on OpenBSD 3.7. Though the backup runs worked fine from the console, they failed strangely when run from crontab. I encountered the following error message from ender:
FINISHED --02:00:05--
Downloaded: 35,394 bytes in 1 files
rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (0 bytes received so far) [sender]
rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) at /usr/ports/net/rsync/w-rsync-2.6.6/rsync-2.6.6/io.c(434)
Error preparing server jane for backup:
rsync command [/usr/local/bin/rsync --links --times -z --rsh="ssh -q -A" "/tmp/aE6jFxDCgD/qdb_run.pl" "ender_backup@jane:~/qdb_run.pl"] exited with error 3072
It’s failed during the step in the backup process where qdb.pl is uploading a Perl script to jane, which will clear out any previous temp files and determine the most recent snapshot, etc. This upload seems to be failing, with the meaningless error:
rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12)
I’ve rumaged around the ‘net, and it appears this is due to a protocol version mismatch. Indeed, jane is running rsync version 2.6.3, protocol version 28, while ender and bonzo are at 2.6.6, protocol version 29. But, bonzo has been working fine for months, and ender works fine when I run the backup script from the shell.
I could upgrade to the rsync-2.6.6 version, but to do that I’d have to download and install the ports tree on jane, then advance the kernel, username, and ports tree to 3.7-STABLE, which is a huge multi-day pain in the ass.
I’m going to give it one more chance to run correctly; if it still doesn’t work I’ll break down and upgrade jane to OpenBSD 3.8, which includes rsync-2.6.6 in the RELEASE branch, plus I need to do a practice run before I upgrade ender.