Grsync doesn't ask for password for a remote->local backup via SSH

[Diego Bersanetti]

Using Grsync to perform a remote to local backup does not work, as the password dialog is never shown; this happened in earlier releases with a basic X11 dialog, I guess using ssh-askpass. This may be linked to the switch to Wayland, which does not use Xresources/xinitrc anymore.

The very same rsync command works fine from Terminal.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: grsync 1.2.6-1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-33.36-generic 4.15.18
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-33-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sat Aug 25 14:52:37 2018
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/grsync
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-08-13 (11 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180725)
SourcePackage: grsync
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Nick Sinik (sinikn)]

Using Grsync to perform a remote to local backup works OK (grsync 1.2.6/ubuntu 18.04 LTS), just run on the local server ssh-keygen then ssh-copy-id to the remote server and grsync will complete sync not asking for the password.

[schamane (schamane)]

This might be related to the issues with ssh-askpass which I reported in bug #1812247

[Ruben Garcia (rubengarciahernandez)]

One of my users is also affected.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[dw861 (dw861)]

I experience the same issue, but can provide more details than those above. Do I describe the same situation?

For me, the problem is that grsync does not include all elements of what I have indicated in the advanced options tab. Specifically, quotation marks do not get passed along in the rsync command that gets executed.

For me, the result is that rsync tries to use the default port 22, instead of port 7822, as stipulated in:
-e "ssh -p 7822"

grsync instead renders this command as -e ssh -p 7822, without quotation marks, and rsync doesn't know what to do with this. The result, is that it uses an incorrect, closed port, hence, no password request.

grsync doesn't ever provide an error. It simply sits there. One can only see the issue, and an error, if you use grsync's "rsync command line" under the "File" menu, and copy that text into a terminal.

When I run that, I get the error
ssh: connect to host remotehost-name port 22: Connection refused
rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (0 bytes received so far) [sender]
rsync error: unexplained error (code 255) at io.c(235) [sender=3.1.2]

The command that grsync erroneously generates is, without quotation marks:
rsync -r -t -v --progress --delete -z -s -e ssh -p 7822 --exclude .* /local-path/local-directory/ login@remote-server:path/directory

but what I actually entered into grsync was, with quotation marks:
rsync -r -t -v --progress --delete -z -s -e "ssh -p 7822" --exclude ".*" /local-path/local-directory/ login@remote-server:path/directory

This is in error, on grsync's part. When run from the prompt, rsync works just fine.

Thank you for your assistance.