How to include files that are excluded in an rsync

rsync

I'm trying to set up an rsync that excludes all .* files except for .htaccess but unfortunately, this doesn't work:

rsync -avP --exclude=".*" --include="./.htaccess" ./. user@server:/dir

Is it possible to somehow exclude general exclude rules?

Best Answer

The first matching rule applies, so include .htaccess before excluding .*.

rsync -avP --include=".htaccess" --exclude=".*" . user@server:/dir

This copies .htaccess at every level. I don't know what you intended with ./.htaccess; if you want to match a file at the root of the copy only, start the pattern with a /. If you only want the root .htaccess, you can't just use --include='/.htaccess' --exclude='.*', because the non-rooted rule actually takes precedence here, you need to do something more complicated:

rsync -avP --exclude='/*/**/.htaccess' --include='.htaccess' --exclude=".*" . user@server:/dir

Further reading: basic principles for rsync filters.

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