How to change the owner for a rsync

If you have access to rsync v.3.1.0 or later, use the --chown option:

rsync -og --chown=apache:apache [src] [dst]

More info in an answer from a similar question here: ServerFault: Rsync command issues, owner and group permissions doesn´t change

The solution using rsync --chown USER:GROUP [src] [dst] only works if the remote user has write access to the the destination directory which in most cases is not the case.

Here's another solution:

Overview

(srcmachine)  (rsync)   (destmachine)
  srcuser    -- SSH -->   destuser
                             |
                             | sudo su jenkins
                             |
                             v
                          jenkins

Let's say that you want to rsync:

• From:
  • Machine: srcmachine
  • User: srcuser
  • Directory: /var/lib/jenkins
• To:
  • Machine: destmachine
  • User: destuser to establish the SSH connection.
  • Directory: /tmp
  • Final files owner: jenkins.

Solution

rsync --rsync-path 'sudo -u jenkins rsync' -avP --delete /var/lib/jenkins destuser@destmachine:/tmp

---

Read more here:

https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/546296/116861

There are hacks you could put together on the receiving machine to get the ownership right -- run 'chmod -R apache /website' out of cron would be an effective but pretty kludgey option -- but instead, I'd recommend securely allowing rsync-over-ssh-as-apache.

You'd create a dedicated ssh keypair for this:

ssh-keygen -f ~/.ssh/apache-rsync

and then take ~/.ssh/apache-rsync.pub over to the webserver, where you'd put it into ~apache/.ssh/authorized_keys and carefully specify the allowed command, something like so, all on one line:

command="rsync --server -vlogDtprCz --delete . /website",from="IP.ADDR.OF.SENDER",no-port-forwarding,no-X11-forwarding,no-pty ssh-rsa AAABKEYPUBTEXTsVX9NjIK59wJ+fjDgTQtGwhATsfidQbO6u77dbAjTUmWCZjKAQ/fEFWZGSlqcO2yXXXXXXXXXXVd9DSS1tjE6vAQaRdnMXBggtn4M9rnePD2qlR5QOAUUwhyFPhm6U4VFhRoa3wLvoqCVtCV0cuirB6I45On96OPijOwvAuz3KIE3+W9offomzHsljUMXXXXXXXXXXMoYLywMG/GPrZ8supIDYk57waTQWymUyRohoQqFGMzuDNbq+U0JSRlvLFoVUZ5Piz+gKJwwiFwwAW2iNag/c4Mrb/BVDQAyEQ== [email protected]

and then your rsync command on your "home" machine would be something like

rsync -av --delete -e 'ssh -i ~/.ssh/apache-rsync apache@server' ./ /website

There are other ways to skin this cat, but this is the clearest and involves the fewest workarounds, to my mind. It prevents getting a shell as apache, which is the biggest security concern, natch. If you're really deadset against allowing ssh as apache, there are other ways ... but this is how I've done it.

References here: http://ramblings.narrabilis.com/using-rsync-with-ssh, http://www.sakana.fr/blog/2008/05/07/securing-automated-rsync-over-ssh/

Last version (at least 3.1.1) of rsync allows you to specify the "remote ownership":

--usermap=tom:www-data

Changes tom ownership to www-data (aka PHP/Nginx). If you are using Mac as the client, use brew to upgrade to the last version. And on your server, download archives sources, then "make" it!