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   rsync    ( 1 )

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FILTER RULES

The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer (include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).

As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the filename is not skipped.

Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:

RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME] RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME]

You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present) must come after either a single space or an underscore (_). Here are the available rule prefixes:

exclude, '-' specifies an exclude pattern.

include, '+' specifies an include pattern.

merge, '.' specifies a merge-file to read for more rules.

dir-merge, ':' specifies a per-directory merge-file.

hide, 'H' specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer.

show, 'S' files that match the pattern are not hidden.

protect, 'P' specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion.

risk, 'R' files that match the pattern are not protected.

clear, '!' clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg)

When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are comment lines that start with a "#".

Note that the --include & --exclude command-line options do not allow the full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the specification of include / exclude patterns plus a "!" token to clear the list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file). If a pattern does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A --filter option, on the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the start of the rule.

Note also that the --filter, --include, and --exclude options take one rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the --filter option, or the --include-from / --exclude-from options.