ssh://ssh-user@192.168.0.1:22/usr/portage Even above example of rsync over ssh sync-uri from 'man portage' does not work, because emerge is using wrong rsync command: # ps -C rsync -o cmd --no-headers -ww rsync --recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --omit-dir-times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --human-readable --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages --verbose --progress ssh-user@192.168.0.1:22:/usr/portage/metadata/timestamp.chk /tmp/tmpQ3BeX1 Instead of '192.168.0.1:22:/' it should use '192.168.0.1:/' and '-e "ssh -p 22"', see 'grep FETCHCOMMAND_SSH= cnf/make.globals' for example of rsync usage. Also emerge replaces hostname with ip in rsync command, it breaks support for custom ports in /etc/ssh/ssh_config.