I am trying to backup some files on another drive using rsync.
As a test case, I am trying the following command:
rsync -Rav --delete --stats /home/my_user/bin* "$dest"This command will copy files and directories (with their contents) present in my $HOME directory and having names like ~/bin, ~/binb, ~/bin1, ~/bin2, etc. to the destination.
However, when I delete any of the files or directories called ~/bin1 or ~/bin2 for example, these are not deleted in the destination too. The only thing that works is when there is a file in a directory say ~/bin2/file1 and this file is deleted, then this file is also deleted in the destination (but not in the case when the directory ~/bin2/ is removed altogether).
Obviously this problem is created by the shell expanding /home/my_user/bin* to all the file and directory names starting with bin in my $HOME directory at the time the rsync command is executed. So, I tried to quote the source like "/home/my_user/bin*", but in this case I get the error:
rsync: [sender] link_stat "/home/my_user/bin*" failed: No such file or directory (2)What options are needed, so, I can use wildcards for the source(s) and I will have the exact replica of the source file and directory structure, also in the destination?
Note: rsync version 3.2.3 protocol version 31
1 Answer
You can use --include / --exclude like:
rsync -Rav --delete \ --include="/home/my_user/bin*" \ --exclude="/home/my_user/*" \
/home/my_user/ "$dest"But I think it would be easier to have a different structure where you can sync only one parent directory.
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