Rsync Filter Rule Modifiers and Merge-File Rules

nothing else o Options -f’+ foo/’ -f’+ foo/bar.c’ -f’- *’ would include only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "- *") FILTER RULE MODIFIERS The following modifiers are accepted after an include (+) or exclude (-) rule: o A / specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched against the absolute pathname of the current item. For example, -f’-/ /etc/passwd’ would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer was sending files from the "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo" would always exclude "foo" when it is in a dir named "subdir", even if "foo" is at the root of the current transfer. o A ! specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if the pattern fails to match. For instance, -f’-! */’ would exclude all non‐directories. o A C is used to indicate that all the global CVS‐exclude rules should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should follow. o An s is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending side. When a rule affects the sending side, it affects what files are put into the sender’s file list. The default is for a rule to affect both sides unless --delete‐excluded was specified, in which case default rules become sender‐side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules, which are an alternate way to specify sending‐side includes/excludes. o An r is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from being deleted. See the s modifier for more info. See also the protect (P) and risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way to specify receiver‐side includes/excludes. o A p indicates that a rule is perishable, meaning that it is ig‐ nored in directories that are being deleted. For instance, the --cvs‐exclude (-C) option’s default rules that exclude things like "CVS" and "*.o" are marked as perishable, and will not pre‐ vent a directory that was removed on the source from being deleted on the destination. o An x indicates that a rule affects xattr names in xattr copy/delete operations (and is thus ignored when matching file/dir names). If no xattr‐matching rules are specified, a de‐ fault xattr filtering rule is used (see the --xattrs option). MERGE‐FILE FILTER RULES You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a merge (.) or a dir‐merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). There are two kinds of merged files -- single‐instance (’.’) and per‐di‐ rectory (’:’). A single‐instance merge file is read one time, and its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "." rule. For per‐directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists into the current list of inherited rules. These per‐directory rule files must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may also need to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them to affect what files don’t get deleted (see PER‐DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE below). Some examples: merge /etc/rsync/default.rules

The section discusses filter rule modifiers in rsync, including 'C' for CVS-exclude rules, 's' and 'r' for sender/receiver side application, 'p' for perishable rules ignored in deleted directories, and 'x' for xattr name matching. It further explains merge-file filter rules, including single-instance and per-directory merge files, which incorporate rules from external files. Per-directory merge files are scanned in each traversed directory on the sending side, affecting file transfers and deletions.