rsync command not found

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Level 2

282 points

rsync command not found

I am trying to use the following command in the terminal:

+*sudo rsync -a --delete "SOURCE" "DESTINATION"*+

but it's returning the following message:

+*-bash: sudo rsync -a: command not found*+

I have been able to run the command before but now it's not working. Any idea what's going on and how I can fix it? I run this same command on another computer and it works fine as well, this only is happening on my wife's MacBook.

Thanks!

iMac 21.5" / 3.06GHz Intel Core i3 / 4GB RAM / 500GB HD, Mac OS X (10.6.4), 16GB iPhone 3GS / iOS 4.0.2

Posted on Aug 21, 2010 9:03 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

BobHarris

Level 9

57,011 points

Aug 22, 2010 6:39 AM in response to bronson

The fact that you got:


-bash: sudo rsync -a: command not found

is a strong indication that 'bash' saw 'sudo rsync -a' as one token and as the command it could not find.

Normally you should see


-bash: command_name: command not found

But in your case, it saw what I would have considered the first 3 tokens as a single command name.

The question is why bash did NOT parse 'sudo' separate from 'rsync' separate from '-a'? But instead treated all 3 as a single token.

Were there any stray quotes (single ' or double ") you forgot to mention? For example:


"sudo rsync -a" --delete "SOURCE" "DESTINATION"
'sudo rsync -a' --delete "SOURCE" "DESTINATION"
sudo rsync -a --delete "SOURCE" "DESTINATION"

Any of these 3 would have generated the error you reported.

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Answer 2

BobHarris

Level 9

57,011 points

Aug 23, 2010 4:00 AM in response to bronson

What is the value of


echo "@$IFS@" | cat -vt

IFS is the Inter-Field-Seperator and is used by bash to parse command lines. I expect nothing between the pair of @@ (at signs) or a space and a tab (^T). Anything else and I start to wonder.

It is possible the .profile or .bash_profile changed IFS for some scripting thing and forgot to change it back.

I think this is a long shot idea, and I'm sure my idea has a flaw in it, but getting the value cannot hurt.

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Answer 3

foilpan

Level 4

1,385 points

Aug 22, 2010 7:56 PM in response to bronson

back up a bit and verify rsync is in your path.

type:

which rsync

or just rsync by itself to see if you get the help output.

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Answer 4

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Aug 21, 2010 11:11 PM in response to bronson

What happens when you type?

*sudo rsync -a*

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Answer 5

BobHarris

Level 9

57,011 points

Aug 23, 2010 6:53 PM in response to bronson

It's returning the following:
@ ^I
@

I get the exact same thing. So my speculation that IFS was somehow involved in bash parsing 'sudo rsync -a' as a single token is a bad idea on my part.

I'm still stumped as to why you are getting that error.

Message was edited by: BobHarris

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Answer 6

bronson Author

Level 2

282 points

Aug 22, 2010 9:16 AM in response to BobHarris

Thanks for the reply. The only quotes in the entire string are double quotes around the SOURCE and DESTINATION paths.

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Answer 7

bronson Author

Level 2

282 points

Aug 22, 2010 9:18 AM in response to baltwo

I get the same message that I originally reported. I think other poster is on to something in that it's seeing "sudo rsync -a" as a single command rather than separate commands with options.

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