lima-vm/lima · error

failed to get rsync version: %w

Error message

failed to get rsync version: %w

What it means

To decide whether rsync destination paths need manual quoting, Lima runs `rsync --version` on the host and parses the semver: versions before 3.2.4 do not default to `--protect-args`, so paths with spaces would be split by the remote shell. If `rsyncVersion` cannot execute or parse rsync's version output, the command aborts wrapped in this message.

Source

Thrown at cmd/limactl/shell.go:437

		sshExecForRsync *exec.Cmd
		rsync           copytool.CopyTool
	)
	if syncHostWorkdir {
		logrus.Infof("Syncing host current directory(%s) to guest instance...", hostCurrentDir)
		sshExecForRsync = exec.CommandContext(ctx, sshExe.Exe, sshArgs...)

		// Create the destination directory in the guest instance,
		// we could have done this by using `--rsync-path` but it's more
		// complex to quote properly.
		if err := executeSSHForRsync(ctx, *sshExecForRsync, inst.SSHLocalPort, inst.SSHAddress, fmt.Sprintf("mkdir -p %s", shellescape.Quote(destRsyncDir))); err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("failed to create the synced workdir in guest instance: %w", err)
		}

		// Quote the destination path for rsync versions before 3.2.4, where --protect-args is not the default
		// and the remote shell would split paths containing spaces.
		rsyncVer, err := rsyncVersion(ctx)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("failed to get rsync version: %w", err)
		}
		if rsyncVer.LessThan(*semver.New("3.2.4")) {
			destRsyncDir = shellescape.Quote(destRsyncDir)
		}

		paths := []string{
			hostCurrentDir,
			fmt.Sprintf("%s:%s", inst.Name, destRsyncDir),
		}
		rsync, err = copytool.New(ctx, string(copytool.BackendRsync), paths, &copytool.Options{
			Recursive: true,
			Verbose:   false,
			AdditionalArgs: []string{
				"--delete",
			},
		})
		if err != nil {
			return err

View on GitHub (pinned to dd909d0973)

Solutions

1. Run `rsync --version` manually and fix whatever makes it fail or print garbage (reinstall rsync if corrupted).
2. Remove conflicting rsync shims from PATH so the real binary is found (`which -a rsync`).
3. Install a standard, current rsync build (>= 3.2.4 also avoids the legacy quoting path).

Example fix

# before (broken shim in PATH)
limactl shell default --sync .
# after
rm ~/bin/rsync   # remove shim; keep only the real rsync
rsync --version  # sanity-check
limactl shell default --sync .

rsync --version >/dev/null 2>&1 || { echo 'rsync --version is broken; reinstall rsync'; exit 1; }

null

if ! limactl shell "$inst" --sync . 2>&1 | grep -q 'rsync version'; then :; else PATH=$(echo "$PATH" | tr ':' '\n' | grep -v shims | paste -sd:) limactl shell "$inst" --sync .; fi

When it happens

Trigger: `--sync` is active, the mkdir step succeeded, and then `rsyncVersion(ctx)` fails — e.g. the rsync binary exists in PATH but is broken/incompatible, exits non-zero for `--version`, or prints output the semver parser cannot understand.

Common situations: A shim/wrapper script named rsync that swallows `--version`; MSYS2/Cygwin rsync conflicts on Windows; an ancient or patched rsync build with non-standard version output; partially upgraded systems where rsync is corrupted.

Related errors

• rsync is required for `--sync` but not found: %w
• expected the depth of the host working directory (%#q) to be
• failed to create the synced workdir in guest instance: %w
• cannot use `--sync` when the instance has host mounts config
• cannot use `--sync` with a wsl2 instance, the host directory

AI-assisted analysis of lima-vm/lima@dd909d0973 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7eb16e375d6829e6. Report an issue: GitHub.