#3517 Issue open: sftp server support in rescue broken - propose to remove it

Labels: bug

pcahyna opened issue at 2025-09-03 09:57:

ReaR version

Relax-and-Recover 2.9 / 2025-01-31

Describe the ReaR bug in detail

sftp to the rescue system does not work, even if ssh does.

The problem with PROGS is that it ignores the path (even if the program gets specified by its absolute path) and copies the program to /usr/bin - but sshd need the helper at exactly the same path as on the original system, as it invokes the helper via its full path (not $PATH). This behavior of PROGS is arguably something that should be changed and PROGS should use an absolute path as target if provided.

This is fatal for sftp, as the sftp-server gets also copied to /usr/bin instead to its correct path, but sshd refers to it by its full path.

Similar code has been here since the beginning of the git history (2009), so I wonder whether the sftp part has ever worked and thus I would prefer to remove it instead of fixing it.

Platform

Linux x64

OS version

NAME="Red Hat Enterprise Linux" VERSION="10.1 (Coughlan)" ID="rhel" ID_LIKE="centos fedora" VERSION_ID="10.1" PLATFORM_ID="platform:el10" PRETTY_NAME="Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.1 Beta (Coughlan)" ANSI_COLOR="0;31" LOGO="fedora-logo-icon" CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:10.1" HOME_URL="https://www.redhat.com/" DOCUMENTATION_URL="https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/10" REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT="Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10" REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT_VERSION=10.1 REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT="Red Hat Enterprise Linux" REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT_VERSION="10.1 Beta"

Backup

No response

Storage layout

No response

What steps will reproduce the bug?

sftp to a running rescue system:

$ sftp root@...
Warning: Permanently added ... to the list of known hosts.
Connection closed.
Connection closed

Workaround, if any

No response

Additional information

No response

pcahyna commented at 2025-09-03 11:10:

originally from #3510


[Export of Github issue for rear/rear.]