Is it possible to specify a different ssh port when using rsync?

Question

I have been attempting the following command:

rsync -rvz --progress --remove-sent-files ./dir user@host:2222/path

SSH is running on port 2222, but rsync still tries to use port 22 and then complains about not finding the path, cause of course it does not exist.

I would like to know if it is possible to rsync to a remote host on a non-standard ssh port.

score 883 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 20 '19 at 15:02

883

Your command line should look like this:

rsync -rvz -e 'ssh -p 2222' --progress ./dir user@host:/path

this works fine - I use it all the time without needing any new firewall rules - just note the SSH command itself is enclosed in quotes.

edited Mar 20 '19 at 15:02

Piotr Dąbrowski

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answered Jan 07 '11 at 21:20

klapa

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I wonder why it is so - it is such an obvious need, still quite hidden, since this is effectively creating an alias to the ssh binary. (It worked flawlessly, though) – jsbueno Aug 24 '13 at 00:16
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Works with colon symbol `user@host:/path` – DmitrySandalov Feb 03 '14 at 11:47
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the key part of the command is -e 'ssh -p 2222' so you can use this with different rsync params – Evan Donovan Nov 21 '14 at 18:19
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Note that if you need to spec an ssh key you can do that like -e 'ssh -i mykey -p 2222' – dranxo Aug 25 '15 at 21:20
This is dangerous though, because ssh can introduce trash into the stream when it prints messages. – Evi1M4chine Dec 14 '16 at 17:07
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why --remove-sent-files? If it's dangerous to the source data, better mention it... – Til Jun 24 '17 at 03:25
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@POW. The `--remove-sent-files` flag is present in the question; it makes sense to retain it in the answer. – TRiG Aug 09 '17 at 10:37
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use `-z` only if files are uncompressed, otherwise the transfer will take a lot longer – machineaddict Apr 04 '19 at 11:34
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This should be the best answer – James Bond Aug 30 '20 at 10:07

score 187 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 01 '14 at 15:42

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Another option, in the host you run rsync from, set the port in the ssh config file, ie:

cat ~/.ssh/config
Host host
    Port 2222

Then rsync over ssh will talk to port 2222:

rsync -rvz --progress --remove-sent-files ./dir user@host:/path

answered Jan 01 '14 at 15:42

Joao Costa

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Although this isn't the most obvious answer it is still a very good answer. It's worth using SSH config for any host you connect to more than once or twice as it'll save you a lot of thinking and typing. – John Hunt Apr 28 '14 at 08:59
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Indeed, although to be fair, the downside is it becomes invisible, ie, after a while one might forget it's in the ssh config file and not understand how it works, or one of your colleagues might copy/paste the command and not understand why it doesn't work in their account. Still, personally i prefer not having to type the port number all the time. – Joao Costa May 12 '14 at 09:39
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This is horrible. its completely incompatible with port NATing. unless you want to have multiple dns names for the same ip address, which is a maintenance issue – Northstrider Sep 30 '15 at 06:25
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@melfect Are you kidding? I wouldn't call it horrible as much as I'd call it the greatest thing ever for someone who needs to `rsync` to a weird port many times but each time is spread out just enough to where you forget the syntax. – Freedom_Ben Aug 05 '16 at 06:32
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I'd prefer this solution as I'm lazy enough to keep typing the same thing over and over. – Christian Noel Mar 16 '17 at 03:14
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While this makes it easier for you to connect, it also makes it easier for hackers, and your auth.log will once again be swamped with automated attempts. So it sort of voids the point of changing ports. – forthrin Sep 17 '18 at 05:44
What if one host listens on two different ports? Right now I'm using /etc/hosts with custom names to be able to have two different host entries in the ssh config, but this doesn't work with dynamic dns. – XMB5 Aug 14 '19 at 03:45
arguable, but imo this is vastly better than other answers as you may set this via cloud-config, locally in /etc or per user in /home/you/.ssh. The fact that you can forget it is a feature because it means someone else (or system) can maintain settings. Mostly likely this is *why* the rsync project uses SSH's settings and does not have a simple port flag – That Realty Programmer Guy Oct 19 '22 at 11:22
@Northstrider this is not incompatible with port forwarding in any way shape or form. If you have only 1 DNS name per IP you are deeply underutilizing DNS. Most folks don't realize CNAME is not alias, A is an alias. By DNS design, you can have unlimited A but only 1 canonical name to 1 A for a reason. – That Realty Programmer Guy Oct 19 '22 at 11:24

Techie · Answer 3 · 2015-01-27T09:37:43.350

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when you need to send files through a specific SSH port:

rsync -azP -e "ssh -p PORT_NUMBER" source destination

example

rsync -azP -e "ssh -p 2121" /path/to/files/source user@remoteip:/path/to/files/destination

edited Jan 27 '15 at 09:37

answered Jan 27 '15 at 09:32

Techie

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and what exactly does this add to the existing answer? – Chris Maes Dec 03 '15 at 16:02
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look at the format and and the example. I have simplified things here. – Techie Dec 03 '15 at 16:31
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OK you removed two optional options, but in essence your answer is exactly the same as the accepted one... – Chris Maes Dec 03 '15 at 17:19
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It's more simplified and formatted. Easier to understand for new learners. By the way thanks for down voting without a reason – Techie Dec 07 '15 at 03:33

score 20 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 26 '14 at 02:36

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use the "rsh option" . e.g.:

rsync -avz --rsh='ssh -p3382' root@remote_server_name:/opt/backups

refer to: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-software-2/rsync-ssh-on-different-port-448112/

answered Nov 26 '14 at 02:36

Siwei

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Worked for me too! I don't know why the most-voted answer does not work... – ch271828n Feb 12 '18 at 12:06
Worked for me too! I needed the keyword "--rsh" – Taewoo Lee Jan 20 '20 at 08:12

Kevin · Answer 5 · 2019-04-24T19:13:51.783

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The correct syntax is to tell Rsync to use a custom SSH command (adding -p 2222), which creates a secure tunnel to remote side using SSH, then connects via localhost:873

rsync -rvz --progress --remove-sent-files -e "ssh -p 2222" ./dir user@host/path

Rsync runs as a daemon on TCP port 873, which is not secure.

From Rsync man:

Push: rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST:DEST

Which misleads people to try this:

rsync -rvz --progress --remove-sent-files ./dir user@host:2222/path

However, that is instructing it to connect to Rsync daemon on port 2222, which is not there.

edited Apr 24 '19 at 19:13

answered Mar 11 '18 at 05:41

Kevin

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other answers did not mention port 873 – Kevin Mar 11 '18 at 05:44
the question was how to get it to run as ssh over port 2222; whether or not rsync requires it is a different story. – Dan Steingart Apr 23 '19 at 20:55
@DanSteingart I updated the answer, does it help more now ? – Kevin Apr 24 '19 at 19:14

score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 29 '22 at 00:03

Running Linux Ubuntu I use the following command

rsync -rvz --rsh='ssh -p2222' --progress --remove-sent-files ./dir user@host:/path

This passes rsh environmental variable as ssh connection on port 2222. All other methods here seem to not work for my flavor of linux so figured I'd provide others my method.

You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the -e command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.

Documentation for Rsync: https://download.samba.org/pub/rsync/rsync.1

score 3 · Answer 7 · edited Mar 06 '18 at 17:59

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I found this solution on Mike Hike Hostetler's site that worked perfectly for me.

# rsync -avz -e "ssh -p $portNumber" user@remoteip:/path/to/files/ /local/path/

edited Mar 06 '18 at 17:59

activedecay

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answered May 10 '14 at 21:20

Rusty1

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and what exactly does this add to the existing answer? – Chris Maes Dec 03 '15 at 16:01
Shows correct quoting for using port number in a variable, rather than hard-coding it. Nice. – Kevin Jul 28 '20 at 23:29

Tomas · Answer 8 · 2016-04-19T12:39:46.873

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A bit offtopic but might help someone. If you need to pass password and port I suggest using sshpass package. Command line command would look like this: sshpass -p "password" rsync -avzh -e 'ssh -p PORT312' root@192.xx.xxx.xxx:/dir_on_host/

edited Apr 19 '16 at 12:39

answered Mar 03 '16 at 12:32

Tomas

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This doesn’t work because keyboard-interactive messes with the data stream, corrupting the protocol. – Evi1M4chine Dec 14 '16 at 17:15

score 3 · Answer 9 · answered Jan 12 '21 at 22:31

When calling rsync within java (and perhaps other languages), I found that setting

-e ssh -p 22

resulting in rsync complaining it could not execute the binary:

ssh -p 22

because that path ssh -p 22 did not exist (the -p and 22 are no longer arguments for some reason and now make up part of the path to the binary rsync should call).

To workaround this problem I was able to use this environment variable:

export "RSYNC_RSH=ssh -p 2222"

(Programmatically set within java using env.put("RSYNC_RSH", "ssh -p " + port);)

Thank you for export "RSYNC_RSH=ssh -p 2222" this has helped me — ivanbogomolov, Jun 27 '23 at 09:30

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Jan 18 '21 at 08:37

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My 2cents, in a single system user you can set the port also on /etc/ssh/ssh_config then rsync will use the port set here

answered Jan 18 '21 at 08:37

CalfCrusher

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Ketema · Answer 11 · 2019-04-22T20:09:45.963

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I was not able to get rsync to connect via ssh on a different port, but I was able to redirect the ssh connection to the computer I wanted via iptables. This is not the solution I was looking for, but it solved my problem.

edited Apr 22 '19 at 20:09

answered Jan 06 '11 at 14:09

Ketema

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Is it possible to specify a different ssh port when using rsync?

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