Using Rsync Filter to Include/Exclude Files

How to use include and exclude precedence with rsync?

I'm unsure if there's a more native way to cross post an answer, but I asked on Stack Exchange and got this excellent answer that solved what I was trying to do perfectly, with context.

rsync: How to apply a recursively include filter while excluding other files

Try first including folders themselves:

rsync -zarv \
  --include="/*.html" \
  --include="/js/" \
  --include="/js/**/" \
  --include="/js/**.min.js" \
  --include="/js/**.min.js" \
  --include="/js/**.min.js.map" \
  --include="/css/" \
  --include="/css/**/" \
  --include="/css/**.min.css" \
  --include="/css/**.min.css.map" \
  --include="/img/***" \
  --exclude="*" \
  --delete \
  ./ "$to"/

Make rsync exclude all directories that contain a file with a specific name

rsync does not support this (at least the manpage does not mention anything), but you can do it in two steps:

1. run find to find the .rsync-exclude files

2. pipe this list to --exclude-from (or use a temporary file)

      --exclude-from=FILE
         This option is related to the --exclude option, but it specifies a FILE that contains exclude  patterns
         (one per line).  Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.  If FILE is -,
         the list will be read from standard input.
   

alternatively, if you do not mind to put something in the files, you can use:

       -F     The -F option is a shorthand for adding two --filter rules to your command.  The first time it is  used
          is a shorthand for this rule:

             --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'

          This  tells  rsync  to  look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have been sprinkled through the
          hierarchy and use their rules to filter the files in the transfer.  If -F is repeated, it is  a  short-
          hand for this rule:

             --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'

          This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.

          See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options work.

Using Rsync include and exclude options to include directory and file by pattern

The problem is that --exclude="*" says to exclude (for example) the 1260000000/ directory, so rsync never examines the contents of that directory, so never notices that the directory contains files that would have been matched by your --include.

I think the closest thing to what you want is this:

rsync -nrv --include="*/" --include="file_11*.jpg" --exclude="*" /Storage/uploads/ /website/uploads/

(which will include all directories, and all files matching file_11*.jpg, but no other files), or maybe this:

rsync -nrv --include="/[0-9][0-9][0-9]0000000/" --include="file_11*.jpg" --exclude="*" /Storage/uploads/ /website/uploads/

(same concept, but much pickier about the directories it will include).

Rsync include, exclude and filters

I finally found where my issue was. I had the source dir in double quotes thus interpreting the * as a literal... Thanks anyway.

Complex rsync filtering (includes and excludes)

If I understand the situation correctly, you need to add the option --prune-empty-dirs (in short, -m) to your command. Those directories are not matched by the exclude rule which exludes their children, so they are copied by default. -m prevents this. If you want to prevent other files to be copied, you must add specific exclude rules for them. For instance, the files 1.txt, 2.txt and so on can be excluded by --exclude=/*.txt. All in all, your command should look as follows:

 rsync -avhr \
   --progress \
   --prune-empty-dirs \
   --include="/20170409_*/schedule/" \
   --include="/20170410_*/schedule/" \
   --include="/20170411_*/schedule/" \
   --exclude="/*.txt" \
   --exclude="/*/*"  \
   /source/dateTimeDirectories/ \
   /destination/dateTimeDirectories/

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