13 Jun 15 00:06, you wrote to all:

 Kh> ./sync_static_to_dev.sh
 Kh> Rsyncing /server/assets with options: -vHrltD -e \'ssh -p 22\'
 Kh> dgetsman@10.183.1.251:/server/assets /server/assets
 Kh> Unexpected remote arg: dgetsman@10.183.1.251:/server/assets
 Kh> rsync error: syntax or usage error (code 1) at main.c(1201)
 Kh> [sender=3.0.6] Done -=-=-=-=-

 Kh> #!/bin/sh

You can change this to:

#!/bin/sh -x

which will echo every command to stderr before it's executed.

 Kh> WHICH='/usr/bin/which'
 Kh> RSYNC=`$WHICH rsync`

It doesn't make any sense to do this. Just use

RSYNC=rsync

and let the shell find rsync.

Or you can point to it directly:

RSYNC=/usr/bin/rsync   # (or /usr/bin/local/rsync on some systems)


Your script had a few other issues. I've greatly simplified it here:

=== Cut ===
#!/bin/sh -x

STATIC_ASSETS=/server/assets
SOURCE=10.183.1.251

RSYNC_VERBOSE=-v
#RSYNC=./param.py
RSYNC=rsync
RSYNC_USER=$USER
RSYNC_OPTS=-HrltD
RSYNC_EXTERN="-e ssh -p 22"

if [ -n "$1" ]; then
  RSYNC_USER=$1
fi

$RSYNC "$RSYNC_VERBOSE" "$RSYNC_OPTS" "$RSYNC_EXTERN"
"$RSYNC_USER"@"$SOURCE":"$STATIC_ASSETS" "$STATIC_ASSETS"
=== Cut ===

A couple of things to note:

1. Don't bother quoting single words when setting variables

2. Use double quotes for all the parameters in the final call to rsync

3. -e ssh -p 22 is actually the default for rsync, so it's redundant, and just
leaving this part out would've fixed your problem

4. param.py is a simple Python script I wrote for testing in place of rsync,
just to print out all the arguments as recieved by the external program:

=== Cut ===
#!/usr/bin/env python
import sys
print sys.argv
=== Cut ===

(You could do this with a shell script instead, but then the arguments might
get escaped again, so I don't trust it.)

So if I set:

RSYNC=./param.py

I get:

$ ./sync_static_to_dev.sh
+ STATIC_ASSETS=/server/assets
+ SOURCE=10.183.1.251
+ RSYNC_VERBOSE=-v
+ RSYNC=./param.py
+ RSYNC_USER=ozzmosis
+ RSYNC_OPTS=-HrltD
+ RSYNC_EXTERN='-e ssh -p 22'
+ [ -n '' ]
+ ./param.py -v -HrltD '-e ssh -p 22' ozzmosis@10.183.1.251:/server/assets
/server/assets
['./param.py', '-v', '-HrltD', '-e ssh -p 22',
'ozzmosis@10.183.1.251:/server/assets', '/server/assets']

Which is correct. :-)

Regards
Andrew

--- GoldED+/BSD 1.1.5-b20130910