[CentOS] rsync question

[Anne Wilson]

On Tuesday 08 April 2008 15:16:22 Jeff Larsen wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 8, 2008 at 5:18 AM, Anne Wilson <cannewilson at googlemail.com> 
wrote:
> > I run several backup scripts by cron, one of which backs up my mail.  I
> > do not want it to back up the Trash folder, but it appears to be doing
> > so.  I conclude that my script is faulty somewhere, and would be grateful
> > for advice.
> >
> >  The command is
> >
> >  rsync -auvz --delete-after
> > --exclude-from=/home/anne/rsync_skiplist_mail.txt /home/anne/Maildir/
> > /Data3/anne/Maildir/
> >
> >  where rsync_skiplist_mail.txt says
> >
> >  *~
> >  .[a-z]*
> >  .[A-Z]*
> >  Maildir/.INBOX.Bugs/
> >  Maildir/.Trash/
> >
> >  Comments, please?
>
> I've always found exclude patterns to be a trial and error process,
> mostly errors. They never seem to do what you think they will. As a
> starting point, I would try putting a / in from of the Maildir
> patterns and put ** at the end of them.
>
> >From "man rsync" (sorry, I know you're a CentOS list regular and have
>
> probably read the man page, but sometimes the relevant text fails to
> stand out):
>
Many times, but it's *very* long, and it's easy to miss the relevant bit.

>        The easiest way to see what name you should include/exclude is
> to just  look  at
>        the output when using --verbose and put a / in front of the
> name (use the --dry-
>        run option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
>
> I think this is one of the weakest features of rsync. I wish they
> would implement something that would generate more predictable
> outcomes.
>
I've used it successfully for quite a long time, but I'm using it on a lot 
more varied data sets now.  When I started I was told that it referenced a 
base, in this instance /home/anne/ and therefore Maildir should not have 
a '/'.  This seems to have worked fine on other sets.  Still, I'll play 
around with that suggestion and see what I can find.  If I solve it I'll 
report back for the sake of the archives.

Thanks

Anne

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