rsync filter merge help

nfn

Hi

I'm having some trouble using filters with rsync (not include/exclude).
I want to backup /etc and /srv starting from /, and exclude every match of tmp/ folders.

This is the command:

rsync -azhP --filter='merge /etc/backup/filter.txt' / user@remote:backup

This is my filter.txt:

# exclude filter
- tmp/**

# include filter
+ /etc/**
+ /srv/**

# exclude everything else
- *

The issue is the exclude pattern, I can't get it to work with '- ', '/' or '/**'.
I get:

[sender] hiding directory etc because of pattern *
[sender] hiding directory srv because of pattern *

What's the correct filter forma to backup only these folders using rsync filters?

Thanks

matey0

You need to include the parent directories /etc and /srv explicitly.

It is also important to understand that the include/exclude rules are applied to every file and directory that the sender is recurs‐ ing into. Thus, if you want a particular deep file to be included, you have to make sure that none of the directories that must be traversed on the way down to that file are excluded or else the file will never be discovered to be included. As an example, if the directory "a/path" was given as a transfer argument and you want to ensure that the file "a/path/down/deep/wanted.txt" is a part of the transfer, then the sender must not exclude the directories "a/path", "a/path/down", or "a/path/down/deep" as it makes it way scanning through the file tree.