Best of the Newsgroups: excluding directories from rsync

If this isn't exactly what you wanted, please try our Search (there's a LOT of techy and non-techy stuff here about Linux, Unix, Mac OS X and just computers in general!):

From: emilio lazardo <NotARealAddress@spam.this>
Subject: rsync exclude file - directory name without directory contents Message-ID: <pstzb.2808$Qd6.956@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net>
Date: Wed, 03 Dec 2003 22:28:37 GMT

When using rsync to maintain incremental backups significant space can be 
saved on the backup server by excluding directories that have non-critical 
or transient data such as /tmp, /proc, /mnt, /cdrom, object and backup 
files, and caches.  The problem is getting rsync to include the directory 
name but exclude its contents, a condition not clearly covered in rsync(1), 
EXCLUDE PATTERNS.

I use a separate backup server and pull from LAN clients but any model 
should.  To test, add '-n -vv' to your rsync command and grep for exclude 
and include statements.  Feedback: rsync at nsr500 dot net.

Remote client example:
    rsync -nvva --stats --delete --exclude-from=<file> -e ssh \
    <client>:/ /<rsync_dir>/<client>/ | egrep '^excl|^incl'

The following rsync exclude file works on my RH 7.3 (2.4.23) and RH 6.2 
(2.2.25) based systems for rsync 2.5.4.  You may have to edit for other 
distributions, especially non-linux or non-standard file system layouts.

--- rsync exclude file start ---

### transient directories - contents
### tmp ###
+ tmp/
- **/tmp/**
+ /tmpfs/
- /tmpfs/**
### transient ###
+ /proc/
- /proc/**
+ /mnt/
- /mnt/**
+ /cdrom/
- /cdrom/**
### cache ###
# mozilla
+ Cache/
- **/Cache/**
# ccache.samba.org
+ ccache/
- **/ccache/**
+ .ccache/
- **/.ccache/**
# others
+ cache/
- **/cache/**
+ xover-cache/
- **/xover-cache/**
### obj ###
# kernel build
- usr/src/**.o
# special library .o (may be RH specific?)
+ usr/*/lib/**.o
+ usr/lib/**.o
# all others
- *.o
### backup ###
- *~

--- rsync exclude file end ---

Many of the products and books I review are things I purchased for my own use. Some were given to me specifically for the purpose of reviewing them.

I resell or can earn commissions from the sale of some of these items. Links within these pages may be affiliate links that pay me for referring you to them. That's mostly insignificant amounts of money; whenever it is not I have made my relationship plain. I also may own stock in companies mentioned here. If you have any question, please do feel free to contact me.