So, I have a seemingly simple issue, but so far I haven't found a solution: I want to exclude the topmost directory from an rsync, while still syncing all its children. The particular issue is that I don't have permission to modify the times of the topmost directory, but want all the children to have properly sync'd times.
The rsync command I'm using is as follows:
rsync --exclude ./ -rlptDu ./ server.example.com:/usr/local/directory/
and server.example.com:/usr/local/directory/ looks like this:
drwxrws--- 5 root staff 24576 Jul 9 15:00 .
(my local user is a member of staff)
When I run rsync, I get the following error:
rsync: failed to set times on "/usr/local/directory/.": Operation not permitted (1)
rsync error: some files/attrs were not transferred (see previous errors) (code 23) at main.c(1070) [sender=3.0.9]
make: *** [pub_to_mel_internal] Error 23
This is version 3.0.9 on the local machine and 3.0.7 on the remote, both machines running Debian.
Best Answer
I think rsync's filter rules can't match the toplevel directory, so it's always synchronized. A workaround is to synchronize all the files inside this directory instead of the directory itself.
Add
.[!.]*after*if you have dot files in the topmost directory, and..?*if you have file names beginning with two dots.