[CentOS] Rsync - include only files containing matching string

[Les Mikesell]

On Wed, Oct 17, 2012 at 11:35 AM, Sean Carolan <scarolan at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have a string, "2012_10_16"; let's call this $YESTERDAY
>
> How can I rsync a file tree from a remote machine to the local one,
> including *only* filenames that contain the matching string?  I've
> read the man page and googled around but can't seem to get the syntax
> right.  I either end up syncing all the files, or none of them.
> Here's how the code looks now (I will remove the dry run once it is
> working):
>
> rsync -avz --dry-run --include=*$YESTERDAY* remotehost:remotedir/
> localdir/transfer/

Rsync's include/exclude syntax is pretty quirky...  First it will
include everything by default and it applies the directives in the
order specified so if you don't want everything you need --exclude='*'
at the end of the list.   Also, patterns apply to directories, so you
need to --include='**' as a special case to keep that exclude from
excluding subdirectories.   And if you want all filenames including
your string you need to put *'s at each end (that's not a quirk, but
may be tricky to arrange with variable expansion but not shell
wildcard expansion).

Maybe:
rsync -avz --dry-run --include='**' --include='*2012_10_16*'
--exclude='*' remotehost:remotedir/ localdir/transfer/
Not sure if that traverses all subdirectory levels or if ** is just one level.

-- 
  Les Mikesell
   lesmikesell at gmail.com