Feature Request: add rsync as tool

[cw789]

There was already a discussion on msysgit, to add rsync to the set of preinstalled tools. But sadly it never made it.

Why I suggest to add rsync:
I personaly think it is the better way to deploy my projects to production with rsync and not with git,
because it's more easy to exclude /.git and other unwanted items. You all have heard of public /.git folders in production environments with sensitve data. Whoever would ever have done this?
So I would recommend to spread more the way to deploy with rsync.

And of course if you have rsync already running on your windows machine you can use it for a lot more cool things.

And guys come on, the size of rsync is not that heavy...

[dscho]

@C-wx if you really want it, can I see the well-crafted Pull Request?

[cw789]

If my skills would allow it to start with that feature myself, I wouldn't have come up with this question to you guys. So this was just input from an user to you guys to consider my suggestion.

I'm sorry for not being able to contribute more than this.

[dscho]

It's not exactly hard. See for yourself what others did: git-for-windows/build-extra#57 (The only other resource you need is here: https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/wiki/Making-an-installer).

[joeyh]

My life would also be made a lot easier if rsync was included.

I think the best reason is just that git-fetch can use rsync. So, as ssh is included to handle ssh:// repos, it makes sense to include rsync for rsync:// repos

My personal reason is that git-annex uses rsync somewhat more heavily than git itself does, and git-annex for windows has a bear of a time including rsync and making it work with the ssh provided by git for windows.

[dscho]

The rsync:// protocol was deprecated a real long time ago.

As to including rsync, my suggestion stands.

[vteivans]

Hey There!
I would also really wan't rsync included in git for windows, cause that really fixes working with symlinks in vagrant box on Windows.
Are there any other resources for compiling rsync with git SDK?

[dscho]

@vteivans sure: https://github.com/git-for-windows/MSYS2-packages/tree/master/rsync and https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/wiki/Package-management (in particular, https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/wiki/Package-management#rebuild-packages).

[dscho]

(But I fear that you will be disappointed in hearing that rsync cannot fix whatever problems you have with symlinks)

[vteivans]

@dscho, no I already fixed everything with Rsync, and it works like a charm, the only problem is setting it up, so it would be great if it would be included in git for windows. :)

[dscho]

@vteivans The Git for Windows project is about empowering users to bring about what they want, without the need to rely on other people.

So if you are dreaming of a Git for Windows that ships rsync.exe, you can continue dreaming while preparing a Pull Request that imitates git-for-windows/build-extra@920c19b, including a verbose commit message that describes that Git has not been relying on rsync for eons but that it is still nice to have and that it only adds <number> kilobytes to the installer.

[geneorama]

I recently updated git from the git-scm site, and I have rsync now. So, was it included and this thread can be closed?

[dscho]

@geneorama It was not included:

$ which rsync
which: no rsync in ([the entire PATH])

(this is with Git for Windows 2.7.4's Git Bash)

Even worse, Git's support for the rsync protocol will be officially dropped with 2.8.0.

If there had been more action and less talking in this here ticket, I would actually have accepted a Pull Request to add rsync.exe to the official Git for Windows installer, but nothing happened at all, except for upstream removing rsync support officially. So now I am much less inclined to include a tool that turns out to be totally useless within Git's context.

Seriously, if you want to be able to install Unixy tools in your environment on Windows, Git for Windows (whose mission it is to bring Git to the Windows masses) is a suboptimal choice. You definitely want to go with MSYS2 or Cygwin instead.

And this ticket is already closed ;-)

[geneorama]

@dscho Your comment helped me considerably. I realized that my version of rsync is indeed not from git for windows. I hadn't run which rsync. Yes, insert forehead slap, eye rolling, and other nonverbal chiding here.
My version is from Rtools. The weird thing is that before updating git for windows the other day I simply got "rsync not found". I thought that updating git for windows installed rsync. Actually, I must have had an error in my PATH variable, and after updating git for windows I happened to adjust my PATH. It was this coincidental adjustment that made rsync available.