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I´m trying to set owner and group via rsync and it doesn't seem to be working.
This is the command:
sudo rsync -rlptDvz --owner=cmsseren --group=cmsseren /home/serena/public_html/ -e ssh root@ip:/home/cmsseren/public_html2/
The files sync correctly but doesn´t seem to change the owner and group.
It sounds like it is working correctly. Use --owner and --group to preserve (not set) the owner and group names... meaning that you do not want them to change after the transfer.
If you don't use these options, the user and group will be changed to the invoking user on the receiving end. If you want to specify some other user, you will need to add a chown command to your script.
-o, --owner
This option causes rsync to set the owner of the destination file to be
the same as the source file, but only if the receiving rsync is being run
as the super-user (see also the --super and --fake-super options). Without
this option, the owner of new and/or transferred files are set to the invoking
user on the receiving side...
-g, --group
This option causes rsync to set the group of the destination file to be the same as
the source file. If the receiving program is not running as the super-user (or if
--no-super was specified), only groups that the invoking user on the receiving side
is a member of will be preserved. Without this option, the group is set to the default
group of the invoking user on the receiving side...
ssh root@ip 'chown -R cmsseren:cmsseren /home/serena/public_html2/*'
Dec 31 '13 at 21:45
Version 3.1.0 of rsync introduced the --usermap and --groupmap mentioned by Thomas, but also the convenience option --chown, which works well for your scenario.
--chown=USER:GROUP
This option forces all files to be owned by USER with group GROUP.
This is a simpler interface than using --usermap and --groupmap directly,
but it is implemented using those options internally, so you cannot mix them.
If either the USER or GROUP is empty, no mapping for the omitted user/group will
occur. If GROUP is empty, the trailing colon may be omitted, but if USER is
empty, a leading colon must be supplied.
If you specify "--chown=foo:bar, this is exactly the same as specifying
"--usermap=*:foo --groupmap=*:bar", only easier.
Also, the -o and -g options are required. Excluding them will fail to update their respective attribute, but produce no error.
rsync -og --chown=cmsseren:cmsseren [src] [dest]
This is mentioned indirectly in the manpage, which
states that the --chown option "is implemented using --usermap and --groupmap internally", and:
For the
--usermapoption to have any effect, the-o(--owner) option must be used (or implied), and the receiver will need to be running as a super-user (see also the--fake-superoption).For the
--groupmapoption to have any effect, the-g(--groups) option must be used (or implied), and the receiver will need to have permissions to set that group.
--chown would do well to mention that --owner (--super) and --group are needed".
Nov 20 '15 at 12:58
Last version (at least 3.1.1) of rsync allows you to specify the "remote ownership":
--usermap=tom:www-data
Changes tom ownership to www-data (aka PHP/Nginx). If you are using Mac as the client, use brew to upgrade to the last version. And on your server, download archives sources, then "make" it!
Another solution may be to change the remote user that establishes the rsync connection using --rsync-path. I posted a complete explanation here:
