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Comments (184)

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  Panino
  I've been using openrsync here and there since it was announced and it's definitely improved over time. I'm looking forward to when I can use it exclusively.The one place in my usage where it doesn't match Samba rsync is with the following:openrsync --rsync-path=openrsync -av -e ssh /etc/services example.com:/tmp/servicesI would expect openrsync to create a remote file /tmp/services, but instead it creates /tmp/services/services.Normal directory mirroring as in -av -e ssh /path/to/src/ example.com:/path/to/dst/ works as it does with Samba rsync.
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  trollbridge
  Given the sudden spike in vibe-coded commits to the rsync codebase, and regressions that’s introduced, this is very good news.
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  denysvitali
  There's also a Go implementation by Michael Stapelberg / the Gokrazy team: https://github.com/gokrazy/rsync
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  Bender
  The actual work of porting is matching the security features provided by OpenBSD's pledge(2) and unveil(2). These are critical elements to the functionality of the system. Without them, your system accepts arbitrary data from the public network.https://justine.lol/pledge/I am not seeing pledge on Alpine Linux in edge. Have people been testing Pledge on Linux? Did I perhaps misunderstand the risk of using Openrsync without pledge? Or is this article just for OpenBSD users?
• salvesefu
  For those needing context for the development of this package; this project is presently being developed as part of a RPKI validator.https://medium.com/@jobsnijders/a-proposal-for-a-new-rpki-va...
• mike_hock
  > If the source or destination is on a remote server, the client then fork(2)s and starts the server openrsync on the remote host over ssh(1). The client and the server subsequently communicate over socketpair(2) pipes.How is that supposed to work? I guess they mean something like, the forked child forwards the connection to the parent using a socket pair, or just connects its stdout/stdin to the socketpair "pipe" (socket) and execs ssh.But that's like saying you're going to Australia by car when you mean you're driving to the airport.
• onedognight
  They don’t support any recent rsync protocol, so there’s no 64bit timestamp support, so you can never actually sync metadata across newer filesystems.
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  thefilmore
  This is the version used in macOS since 15.0.
• LAC-Tech
  A few comments here suggest rsync is undergoing some "churn" which tbh is highly undesirable for a command line utility. Might switch over.As an aside I really love the stuff openBSD puts out. If they ever succeed in making a modern journalling filesystem I will probably switch over.
• BoingBoomTschak
  Since I switched my VPS to OpenBSD (base only), I've been "forced" to handle openrsync and it has been mostly a drop-in. Except a problem where I couldn't mix `--exclude glob` and `--delete` on the client, no problem to report.Thanks for the various vibecoding posts, I wasn't aware of the extent of it. Some prior HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48334021
• gorgoiler
  All software anneals into a final form that is incontrovertibly correct. Each of these OpenBSD rewrites feels like the realization of such a final form!Code is like a math proof: sketched first on a napkin, then on a blackboard, and then finally typeset in a paper. Each step tidies up the ideas to improve the communication of intent, and the final version should be self evidently stable and/or correct.In the old days you’d see code stability emerge as the “v2” edition of some piece of software. Mozilla to Phoenix to Firebird/fox. Linux 2.2 to 2.4. Python 2.6 to 3.x. The design patterns are carried over but the implementations are revamped for more stable, more legible, and more maintainable code.I don’t mind that vibe coding is the latest form of this phenomenon. We have all been “vibe coding” for decades really. Code like this crap: T = “hello world” def foo_2(): FONT = “Perpetua.ttf” w = text(T, Font) w2 = w.translate((50,0,0)) w3 = w.translate((0,0,20)) show(w3) …gets eventually rewritten, once it works, into: def render(phrase: str, font: Font) -> Shape: return w.text(phrase, font) font = Fonts.load(“Perpetua”) text = render(“hello world”, font).translate((50, 0, 20)) show(text) Before, we’d hack a v0, tidy it up sufficiently for it to be worth of review as v1, then, come back much later and rearrange the innards (in a far more sensible way) as v2.With LLMs — especially in the hands of those who can’t read or won’t read the actual code — we are seeing a lot more version zeroes in the world. Thank you OpenBSD for giving us, albeit surprisingly for rsync, a nice v2.
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  jmclnx
  I have not checked with OpenBSD 7.9, but as of 7.8 it did not support --exclude or -z. But outside of that openrsync works great.(EDIT: --exclude is now supported on 7.9. Not sure when that was added, nice!)But seems avoiding "slop" is getting very hard. I saw postfix now has a bit of AI code in it.https://mastodon.sdf.org/@mrmasterkeyboard@mastodon.social/1...
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  WD-42
  What's the deal with the name? Openrsync implies to me that it's an open source alternative to a closed source program. But the original Rsync is GPL? Is this just the pushover license making it "more open"?
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  chasil
  There is also a (stub) web page:https://www.openrsync.org/The problem with this fragmentation of rsync is that Apple and Android will prefer it, but the Linux and greater GPL world will adhere to the original implantation due to inertia. Power users will just have to know the quirks of each version.The only way to stop this is for the original author(s) to release this under a BSD license.Edit: For those assuming equivalent/identical behavior, study these words carefully: "accepts only a subset of rsync's command-line arguments."
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  neves
  Why do they need to reimplement a robust piece of difference as rsync?
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  tptacek
  rsync has specific running modes for the super-user. It also pumps arbitrary data from the network onto your file-system. openrsync is about 10 000 lines of C code: do you trust me not to make mistakes?No, but that's why almost nobody runs it outside of strict trust boundaries. This security section would make more sense if rsync was like curl, which routinely deals with hostile counterparties. If the other side of your rsync is hostile, you probably have bigger problems!(I'm not an rpki person so I don't know if there's some part of that problem domain that changes this equation. I'm not dunking on the project, just saying this snagged me in the README).
• TZubiri
  Might be offtopic, but i think when looking for alternatives the options should be broad, questioning the category of the app, not just clones and forks.If you are considering migrating away from github, don't just consider gitlab and gitea, consider just git, and so on..If you are considering migrating away from rsync, consider dd. You need to configure the folders you want to backup as mountable partitions or disks, but it does byte for byte copies instead of 100kloc fuckery.
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  skeledrew
  This attempt to avoid things that use AI is increasingly looking like some weird kind of reverse whack-a-mole where each targeted hole becomes radioactive after. Just grabbing some popcorn to watch.
• anon
  undefined
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  SubiculumCode
  I'm going to ask a question. I could ask chatgpt. I could Google it. I am asking a question because it is human to do so.Ubuntu's packaged rsync, is it Samba rsync? Why reimplement it?
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  triggis
  [flagged]
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  throwaway27448
  I'm confused. Isn't rsync already free software? What are we doing here. Why are we trying to cuck ourselves for capital.I like open bsd but this just seems like burning cash