Ubuntu – How to exclude files in rsync

backuprsyncserver

I'm using ubuntu server 12.04, now I want to backup some files using rsync, here is a try:

rsync -aAX $HOME/Documents/* $HOME/Backups/TEST --exclude={$HOME/Documents/another/*,$HOME/Documents/temp/*}

As you can see, I want to backup all files in the folder $HOME/Documents to folder $HOME/Backups/TEST, but exclude files in folder another and temp. But I failed, rsync still copied the files in both excluded folders:

ls $HOME/Backups/TEST/another
test

test is a file in the folder another, and it is also copied though I exclude the file in rsync, why? How to let those files be actually excluded?

Best Answer

There are several issues with your rsync command (also see manpage for rsync for detailed explanation of filter rules).

  • we need an --exclude command each for any given pattern.
  • paths given need to be relative to the source path (no absolute paths).
  • options need to be given before we state source and destination.

For your example the following syntax will work:

rsync -avAX --exclude=another/ --exclude=temp/ ~/Documents/ ~/Backups/TEST

Note that if an exlude pattern ends with / it refers to a directory. If you omit it both, files and directories with that name will be excluded. Replace it with a wildcard * to exclude all files or directories with that string in their names.

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