[ILUG] SOLVED: [Q] Transferring c.200GiB via net, preserving attributes... How?

[Brian Foster]

 As an FYI, here is the script I'm using to do the transfer...
 It seems to work (do what I want) in tests, so now I'm trying
 the first “real” transfer.  Which is, of course, when problems
 will show up....  ;-\

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#!/bin/bash

readonly  source=REDACTED		# Remote SOURCE machine
readonly    user=REDACTED		# Username on remote SOURCE
# Command on remote SOURCE which outputs the necessary
# password for superusership to stdout...
readonly askpass=REDACTED

opts=( )
dryrun=--dry-run
while [ $# -ge 1 ]; do
	case $1 in
	--)	shift; break			;;
	--Ok)	dryrun=""			;;
	-*)	opts=( "${opts[@]}" "$1" )	;;
	*)	break				;;
	esac
	shift
done
readonly opts dryrun

case $# in
2)	readonly srcdir="$1" dstdir="$2"
	;;
*)	echo >&2 -E "Usage: $0 [options]... [--] source_on_$source local_destination"
	exit 2
	;;
esac

# SOURCE paths ending with slash (`/') are suspicious,
# since that means (to rsync(1)) to _not_ create the
# directory on the DESTINATION.  In general, this is
# not what we want (mostly for safety, since `rsync'
# is run as the superuser (`root') on the DESTINATION,
# so we are paranoid about accidental overwrites!).
#
# For the same reason, we insist the DESTINATION path
# not (yet) exist.
#
[ -e "$dstdir" ] && {
	echo >&2 -E "$0: error 3: Destination \`$dstdir' exists!"
	exit 3
}
case $srcdir in
*/)	echo >&2 -E "$0: error 4: Source ends with \`/'?"
	exit 4
	;;
esac

# The SOURCE machine is (also) Ubuntu, meaning we "cannot" login
# as `root' (we, Ok, we _could_ enable such logins (or equivalent,
# such as using an SSH key), but....).  Since we must run rsync(1)
# on the SOURCE machine as the superuser, the trick is in how to
# run it using sudo(1) on the SOURCE.
#
# We cannot simply run `sudo rsync' (as the remote "rsync" program
# on the SOURCE machine) for a variety of reasons (not listed).
#
# The trick we use is to have a private, highly protected script
# on the SOURCE machine (the `/file/containing/password' is also,
# of course, highly protected):
#
#	cat </file/containing/password
#
# We then run that script as `sudo -A's "askpass" program.
# Easy!  ;-)
#
# This is (very loosely) based on the ideas presented in:
#    http://www.pplux.com/2009/02/07/rsync-root-and-sudo/

readonly authorise="SUDO_ASKPASS='$askpass' sudo -A --"
readonly   logfile="$(date -Imin)-${srcdir//\//,}"

readonly cmd=( rsync
	--human-readable --human-readable
	--progress
	--verbose
	--stats
	--log-file="$logfile"
	--rsync-path="$authorise rsync"
	--archive
	--hard-links
	--sparse
	--one-file-system
	--compress
	$dryrun
	"${opts[@]}" --
		$user@$source:$srcdir
		$dstdir
)
echo     -E "${cmd[@]}"  >>"$logfile"  ||  exit
echo >&2 -E "$0: rsync \`$srcdir' -> \`$dstdir' log=\`$logfile'"
\time --verbose --append --output="$logfile" -- sudo "${cmd[@]}"
sts=$?
sync
[ $sts -eq 0 ]  ||  echo >&2 -E "$0: rsync error $sts: \`$srcdir' -> \`$dstdir'"
sync
exit $sts
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cheers!
	-blf-

-- 
“How many surrealists does it take to    |  Brian Foster
 change a lightbulb?  Three.  One calms  |  somewhere in south of France
 the warthog, and two fill the bathtub   |     Stop E$$o (ExxonMobil)!
 with brightly-coloured machine tools.”  |       http://www.stopesso.com