rsync shooting blanks -- need help!

[dilapidavid]

Every time I rsync my web pages from my ibook (OSX 10.2.6) to my college's web server (Linux), it botches the results.

Whether I sync files already sftp'd to the server, or start from scratch and rsync them afresh onto the server--I end up with .html files with appropriate names but no content (no bytes) and damaged image files. Then the only thing to do is sftp them back, at which point they work again.

What's the matter with my rsync-ing?? My college's UNIX guru has walked me through SEVERAL command line formulations and is flummoxed.

I've tried both Fink's rsync 2.5.5-1 and the latest rsyncX. Note about rsyncX--I had to translate '--showtogo' to '--progress', since the web server doesn't understand the former.

Here's a command line that works but leaves blanks:

time rsync -a -z -e ssh "/Users/me/sites/public_html/" "me@server.ivytech.eduublic_html/" --delete --progress

 

[dilapidavid]

After three days and consulting several people I lucked into discovering that it was faulty syntax. (I'm trying to speak a language I don't understand!) The little slashes at the very end make all the difference. A slash at the end of the source path says "sync everything that is within this folder," whereas the absence of a slash says "sync this folder and its contents." But for the destination, you want to name the folder to sync *into*, with *no slash* after it--that last slash was screwing everything up.

Let this be a lesson . . .

NO!
rsync -v -ae ssh "/Users/me/sites/public_html/" "username@server.school.eduublic_html/" --delete --progress

YES!
rsync -v -ae ssh "/Users/me/sites/public_html" "username@server.school.edu:" --delete --progress

ALSO YES!
rsync -v -ae ssh "/Users/me/sites/public_html/" "username@server.school.eduublic_html" --delete --progress