Using rsync with path names containing spaces

Question

I am trying to use rsync (on macOS Catalina) but have trouble with spaces in file path names. I have used -s or --protect-args but they do not do anything (when I look at the help for rsync, these options are not listed).

I am running rsync 2.6.9 in zsh. Can anyone help please?

Here is what I get when I run this rsync command:

chris@cgimac ~ % rsync -ahv /Volumes/G_5TB_general/Backup of CG-nas/mac drives/Fitness and health /Volumes/G_5TB_general/temp dump
building file list ... 
rsync: link_stat "/Volumes/G_5TB_general/Backup" failed: No such file or directory (2)
rsync: link_stat "/Users/chris/of" failed: No such file or directory (2) 
rsync: link_stat "/Users/chris/CG-nas/mac" failed: No such file or directory (2)
rsync: link_stat "/Users/chris/drives/Fitness" failed: No such file or directory (2)
rsync: link_stat "/Users/chris/and" failed: No such file or directory (2) 
rsync: link_stat "/Users/chris/health" failed: No such file or directory (2) done

I get the exact same result if I modify the command to

rsync  -ahv  ‘/Volumes/G_5TB_general/Backup of CG-nas/mac drives/Fitness and health’ ‘/Volumes/G_5TB_general/temp dump’

I have looked elsewhere and there are many examples eg st

https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/rsync-transfer-filename-that-contains-whitespace/

where the -s (or --protect-args) option for rsync apparently work.

Answer 1

Though the example in question is a local rsync operation, where one level of argument quoting for the path is sufficient, rsync operations involving a remote server require two levels of quoting for the remote path. For example:

$ rsync -ahv \
    remoteserver:'/remote path w/ spaces and (special chars)' \
    '/local path w/ spaces and (special chars)'
bash: -c: line 0: syntax error near unexpected token `('
bash: -c: line 0: `rsync --server --sender -vlogDtpr . /remote path w/ spaces and (special chars)' .
...

$ rsync -ahv \
    remoteserver:\''/remote path w/ spaces and (special chars)'\' \
    '/local path w/ spaces and (special chars)'
receiving file list ...
...

• The local path in the above rsync command is quoted only once (surrounded by ' quotes), because it is only interpreted by the local shell (as an argument to rsync).
• The remote path in the above rsync command is quoted twice (surrounded by both ' quotes and \' literal quote characters), because it is interpreted by the local shell and the remote shell (as an argument to rsync --server).
• An example with parentheses—in addition to spaces—was chosen for the illustrative error message, revealing why special characters are problematic when not properly quoted in the remote path.
• In this example, the quoting is done in Bash for both the local shell and the remote shell. Depending on the quoting rules of other shells, it may need to be adapted.
• Of course, if the path itself contains a ' character, you'll need to get fancier with the quoting, using something like How to escape quotes in the bash shell?.

Answer 2

The -s option doesn't protect against arguments with spaces passed on the command line, proper quoting does

rsync -ahv "/Volumes/G_5TB_general/Backup of CG-nas/mac drives/Fitness and health" "/Volumes/G_5TB_general/temp dump"

(in your second example you seem to use typographical quotes).

Answer 3

On mac OS I had to escape the first path normally, and the second path escaped + apostrophe. Example:

rsync -avhu VirtualBox\ VMs/Windows\ 10 [email protected]:"/Users/bob/VirtualBox\ VMs/"

This is the only combination that worked with spaces. Both machines are macs.