rsync - Dec 2009 - Include and Exclude

I thought this command would do what I wanted, but instead it doesn't
transfer any files:

rsync -avh --stats --password-file=/var/rsync.passwd --include=Maildir/
--exclude=* mail::root/usr/home /backup/usr/

I want to backup ONLY the /usr/home/*/Maildir directories. I don't want any
other files from any other directories to be transferred.

I can see in the man page where this is a problem:

       when using the --recursive (-r) option (which is implied by -a), every 
       subcomponent of every path is visited  from  the top down, so include/
       exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's full 
       name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents
"/foo" and
       "/foo/bar" must not be excluded).

It then gives an example of including the parent directories.

Trouble is, I do not want any files in /usr/home/fred/ to be synced at all, only
the files (and directories) in /usr/home/fred/Maildir/

Also, I don't necessarily know all the pathnames in /usr/home/; I don't
want to have to build a manual include list every time I want to sync these
folders.



-- 
MY MOM IS NOT DATING JERRY SEINFELD
	Bart chalkboard Ep. AABF06

On Thu, Dec 24, 2009 at 05:50:22AM -0700, LuKreme wrote:
> rsync -avh --stats --password-file=/var/rsync.passwd --include=Maildir/
--exclude=* mail::root/usr/home /backup/usr/
That will send the Maildir directory (without any content) if that
directory exists in the root of the transfer.  If you want to send
things inside the Maildir, you need to either specify includes for
that information, or limit the excluding.  For instance, assuming
that the Maildir is in the root of the transfer, this is better:

    --include=/Maildir/ --exclude=/*

Since both are anchored, this includes this top-level dir, excludes
everything else in the top-level (root of the transfer), but does not
exclude the files that are in the included dir.  Another option:

    --include=/Maildir/*** --exclude=*

If your rsync is new enough to understand "***", that includes both
the dir and the contents, which overrides the global exclude.  If
your rsync is not new enough to understand "***", then you'd need
a
separate include for the dir and the content:

    --include=/Maildir/ --include=/Maildir/** --exclude=*

The first method is the best when it is something this simple, but one
of the latter methods can be useful when doing something more complex.

..wayne..

On Thu, 24 Dec 2009, LuKreme wrote:
> I thought this command would do what I wanted, but instead it doesn't
transfer any files:
> 
> rsync -avh --stats --password-file=/var/rsync.passwd --include=Maildir/ 
> --exclude=* mail::root/usr/home /backup/usr/
> 
> I want to backup ONLY the /usr/home/*/Maildir directories. I don't want
> any other files from any other directories to be transferred.
> 
> I can see in the man page where this is a problem:
> 
>        when using the --recursive (-r) option (which is implied by -a),
every
>        subcomponent of every path is visited  from  the top down, so
include/
>        exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's
full
>        name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents
"/foo" and
>        "/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
> 
> It then gives an example of including the parent directories.
> 
> Trouble is, I do not want any files in /usr/home/fred/ to be synced at 
> all, only the files (and directories) in /usr/home/fred/Maildir/
The following comes close:

rsync -avh '--include=/*/' '--include=/*/Maildir/***'
'--exclude=*' home/
backup/

(Might need to preface the first /* components in the patterns with 
'root/usr/home' or '/root/usr/home' for your case.)

I say "comes close" because it gets an extra empty directory for every
user directory, even if it doesn't contain a Maildir.

> Also, I don't necessarily know all the pathnames in /usr/home/; I
don't
> want to have to build a manual include list every time I want to sync 
> these folders.
Not sure if "I don't want to have to build a manual include list" 
precludes using a script to generate the list, but for solving this same 
problem a while back (backing up user maildirs), I used something like the 
following:

getent passwd | cut -f6 -d: | sort | uniq \
| perl -lnwe '$_.="/Maildir"; print if -e' \
| xargs -iZ rsync -avzR /./Z/ backup/Z/

I don't remember if that's the exact rsync command, but the point is
that
it wasn't too hard to generate the list of Maildir directories, assuming 
it's possible to list the homedirs.

Best,
Ben