When running rsync between different operating systems, you might encounter this puzzling behavior where rsync appears to skip the main directory entirely. Here's what's happening under the hood:

$ rsync -avz -e ssh user@remote:/source/path/ ./destination/
receiving file list ... done
./
sent 26 bytes  received 68 bytes  17.09 bytes/sec
total size is 0  speedup is 0.00

The issue stems from how rsync handles directory structures across different platforms. The key factors are:

• Windows and macOS handle directory permissions differently
• The trailing slash in the source path matters significantly
• Default rsync behavior varies between OS combinations

Here are several approaches that work for Windows-to-macOS transfers:

1. Explicit Directory Creation

Force create the destination directory structure first:

mkdir -p ./export
rsync -avz --ignore-existing user@remote:/source/path/ ./export/

2. Using --recursive Flag

Explicitly tell rsync to handle directories:

rsync -rvz -e ssh user@remote:/source/path/ ./export/

3. Alternative Syntax

Try this pattern which often works better across platforms:

rsync -avz user@remote:/source/path/. ./export/

Add these flags to understand what's happening:

rsync -avz --progress --stats --dry-run -e ssh user@remote:/source/path/ ./export/

For permission-related skips, consider:

rsync -avz --no-perms --no-owner --no-group user@remote:/source/path/ ./export/

This command consistently works across my Windows-to-macOS setup:

rsync -rtvz --progress --delete \
    --exclude='.DS_Store' \
    -e ssh user@remote:/Library/WebServer/sites/staging/app1/ \
    ./export/

When running rsync between Windows and macOS systems for remote deployment testing, you might encounter directory skipping behavior even when using standard flags like -a or -v. Here's what's happening in your specific case:

$ rsync -avz -e ssh user@remote:/path/ ./local
receiving file list ... done
./
sent 26 bytes  received 68 bytes  17.09 bytes/sec
total size is 0  speedup is 0.00

Rsync skips directories primarily due to three reasons:

• Permissions mismatch between source and destination
• Missing trailing slash in source path
• Filesystem differences between Windows and Unix-like systems

Try these command variations to resolve the issue:

# Solution 1: Force directory creation with -d
rsync -avzd -e ssh user@remote:/path/to/source/ ./destination/

# Solution 2: Include --delete and --prune-empty-dirs
rsync -avz --delete --prune-empty-dirs -e ssh user@remote:/source/ ./dest/

# Solution 3: Explicitly include all files
rsync -avz --include='*/' --include='*' --exclude='*' -e ssh user@remote:/source/ ./dest/

When syncing between Windows and Unix systems:

# Handle line endings and permissions:
rsync -avz --no-perms --no-owner --no-group --chmod=ugo=rwX -e ssh user@remote:/src/ ./dst/

# For Cygwin/Windows builds, add:
rsync -rtvz --rsync-path="mkdir -p /remote/path && rsync" user@remote:/src/ /cygdrive/c/local/path/

Add these flags for better diagnostics:

rsync -avv --progress --stats -e ssh user@remote:/src/ ./dst/

# Check what would happen without actual transfer:
rsync -avzn -e ssh user@remote:/src/ ./dst/

For complex directory structures with empty directories:

rsync -avz --relative --delete -e ssh user@remote:/base/path/./subdir ./local/

# Alternative using find and rsync:
ssh user@remote 'cd /src && find . -type d -print0' | xargs -0 mkdir -p
rsync -avz -e ssh user@remote:/src/ ./dst/