I've gone over and over the man page and I don't get it and it's obviously a simple task I want to rsync a directory but only the pdf files... rsync -ncauv --include=*.pdf $WORKING $WEB_SERVER # sync's everything, I want to exclude stuff rsync -ncauv --filter='+ *.pdf' --filter='+ *.odt *.ott *.eps' \ $WORKING $WEB_SERVER # sync's everything...does not seem to exclude anything rsync -ncauv --filter='. /root/scripts/qm_manual_filter' \ $WORKING $WEB_SERVER # cat qm_manual_filter - * + *pdf excludes everything I am using -n for dry-run I definitely need recursive but -a option handles that Suggestions? Craig