Rsync is very powerful tool to take backups, or sync files and directories between two different locations (or servers).
You know this already, as we presented you with practical examples on rsync earlier.
In a typical backup situation, you might want to exclude one or more files (or directories) from the backup. You might also want to exclude a specific file type from rsync.
This article explains how to ignore multiple files and/or directories during rsync with examples.
First, create a sample directory structure as shown below (with some empty files) that can be used for testing purpose.
$ cd ~ $ mkdir -p source/dir1/dir2 $ mkdir -p source/dir3 $ touch source/file1.txt $ touch source/file2.txt $ touch source/dir1/dir2/file3.txt $ touch source/dir3/file4.txt
The above command will create a source directory (under your home directory) with the following structure.
source
- file1.txt
- file2.txt
- dir1
- dir2
- file3.txt
- dir3
- file4.txt
1. Exclude a specific directory
If you don’t want to sync the dir1 (including all it’s subdirectories) from the source to the destination folder, use the rsync –exclude option as shown below.
$ rm -rf destination $ rsync -avz --exclude 'dir1' source/ destination/ building file list ... done created directory dest ./ file1.txt file2.txt dir3/ dir3/file4.txt
Verify to make sure dir1 is not copied from source directory to destination directory.
$ find destination destination destination/file2.txt destination/file1.txt destination/dir3 destination/dir3/file4.txt
2. Exclude multiple directories that matches a pattern
The following example will exclude any directory (or subdirectories) under source/ that matches the pattern “dir*”
$ rm -rf destination $ rsync -avz --exclude 'dir*' source/ destination/ building file list ... done created directory destination ./ file1.txt file2.txt
Verify the destination directory to make sure it didn’t copy any directories that has the keyword “dir” in it.
$ find destination destination destination/file2.txt destination/file1.txt
3. Exclude a specific file
To exclude a specific file, use the relative path of the file in the exclude option as shown below.
$ rm -rf destination $ rsync -avz --exclude 'dir1/dir2/file3.txt' source/ destination/ building file list ... done created directory destination ./ file1.txt file2.txt dir1/ dir1/dir2/ dir3/ dir3/file4.txt
Verify the destination directory to make sure it didn’t copy the specific file ( dir1/dir2/file3.txt in this example).
$ find destination destination destination/file2.txt destination/file1.txt destination/dir1 destination/dir1/dir2 destination/dir3 destination/dir3/file4.txt
4. Exclude path is always relative
If you are not careful, you might make this mistake.
In the following example, the exclude option seems to have a full path (i.e /dir1/dir2/file3.txt). But, from rsync point of view, exclude path is always relative, and it will be treated as dir1/dir2/file3.txt. In the example below, rsync will look for dir1 under source directory (and not under / root directory).
$ rsync -avz --exclude '/dir1/dir2/file3.txt' source/ destination/
So, the above command is exactly same as the following. Just to avoid confusion (and to make it easy to read), don’t give / in front of the exclude path.
$ rsync -avz --exclude 'dir1/dir2/file3.txt' source/ destination/
5. Exclude a specific file type
To exclude a specific file type that has a specific extension, use the appropriate pattern. For example, to exclude all the files that contains .txt as extension, do the following.
$ rsync -avz --exclude '*.txt' source/ destination/ building file list ... done created directory destination ./ dir1/ dir1/dir2/ dir3/
Verify the destination directory to make sure it didn’t copy the *.txt files.
$ find destination destination destination/dir1 destination/dir1/dir2 destination/dir3
Note: The above is very helpful, when you want to backup your home directory, but exclude all those huge image and video files that has a specific file extension.
6. Exclude multiple files and directories at the same time
When you want to exclude multiple files and directories, you can always specify multiple rsync exclude options in the command line as shown below.
$ rsync -avz --exclude file1.txt --exclude dir3/file4.txt source/ destination/
Wait. What if I had tons of files that I want to exclude from rsync?
I can’t keep adding them in the command line using multiple –exclude, which is hard to read, and hard to re-use the rsync command for later.
So, the better way is to use rsync –exclude-from option as shown below, where you can list all the files (and directories) you want to exclude in a file.
First, create a text file with a list of all the files and directories you don’t want to backup. This is the list of files and directories you want to exclude from the rsync.
$ vim exclude-list.txt file1.txt dir3/file4.txt
Next, execute the rsync using –exclude-from option with the exclude-list.txt as shown below.
$ rm -rf destination $ rsync -avz --exclude-from 'exclude-list.txt' source/ destination/ building file list ... done created directory destination ./ file2.txt dir1/ dir1/dir2/ dir1/dir2/file3.txt dir3/
Verify the desitination directory to make sure the files and directories listed in the exclude-list.txt file is not backed-up.
$ find destination destination destination/file2.txt destination/dir1 destination/dir1/dir2 destination/dir1/dir2/file3.txt destination/dir3
My name is Ramesh Natarajan. I will be posting instruction guides, how-to, troubleshooting tips and tricks on Linux, database, hardware, security and web. My focus is to write articles that will either teach you or help you resolve a problem. Read more about
Comments on this entry are closed.
Thanks for this information, very useful.
“Small typo error at point 6, I think it should be files and directories (Instead of ‘are’).”
Good post,its very usefull. thank you very much!!! from argentina.
As always, I feel compelled to amend 😉
The leading slash ‘/’ in the exclude is of great importance. It means “match only at the base of the source tree”. Assume the following:
– tools/
– src/
–program.c
–tools/
So there is the directory tools/ and src/tools/. –exclude tools/ should exclude both of those directories named “tools”, whereas –exclude /tools/ will only exclude the former (which is probably more often intended).
@Ashwin,
Thanks for pointing out the typo. It is fixed.
@Felix,
Your amendment are always most welcome, and they are helpful. Thanks.
Thank you for taking the time to write such a systematic guide to understanding and using the exclude option in Rsync – very useful and cleared up some points I was uncertain about!
Jonathan
It saved my time !!!
Thanks.
Really helpful doc. Thanks for sharing.
As Felix pointed out, the leading / is of importance. So point 4 should be corrected!
Hello Ramesh sir i enjoy reading this article it would be nice if you specify how to use rsync with ssh on different port
Thanks for the post. There is one case you did not specify, which is also very handy. I found from here.
Excluding all files but a specific match or directory and its subfiles.
rsync –include=’*/’ –include=’Dir/*’ –include=’*.jpg’ –exclude=’*’ -m
From what I can tell the ‘*/’ includes all directories – you need all parent directories of desired files included – and the -m then prunes all empty directories that had no matching files.
The “–exclude” option works like a pattern, so:
rsync -av –delete /home/me/.mozilla –exclude=Cache /media/hddext/backup
will exclude any folder which has a name of “Cache”.
remember –exclude-from option:
/tmp/exclude-files:
– *.mp3
– *.avi
– *.iso
– *.mpg
rsync -hva –exclude-from=/tmp/exclude-files /source /destination
great post.
thanks 🙂
Thanks for taking the time to post this. It is handy and very helpful
Cheers
Using the –exclude option, –exclude ‘dir*’ will not work correctly. With globbing, you need to use double quotes. So that should be corrected to:
–exclude”dir*”
IMPORTANT NOTE:
NO SPACES AT THE END OF EACH LINE for your –exclude-from file
AND
Exclude path is always relative is NOT TRUE exclude path is only relative to the source directory if you begin your patterns with ‘/’ otherwise the pattern will match ANYWHERE in the source directory…
Yes, I agree with JD.
I tried with the following structure and I tried to exlude only ‘dir1/dir3’ , but when I use ‘–exclude dir3’, ‘dir1/dir2/dir3’ and ‘dir1/dir4/dir3’ also get excluded.
/tmp $ mkdir -p dir1/dir{2,3,4}/dir{1,2,3}
/tmp $ find dir1
dir1
dir1/dir3
dir1/dir3/dir1
dir1/dir3/dir3
dir1/dir3/dir2
dir1/dir2
dir1/dir2/dir1
dir1/dir2/dir3
dir1/dir2/dir2
dir1/dir4
dir1/dir4/dir1
dir1/dir4/dir3
dir1/dir4/dir2
/tmp $ rsync -av –exclude dir3 dir1/ dir2/
sending incremental file list
./
dir2/
dir2/dir1/
dir2/dir2/
dir4/
dir4/dir1/
dir4/dir2/
sent 146 bytes received 39 bytes 370.00 bytes/sec
total size is 0 speedup is 0.00
/tmp $ find dir2
dir2
dir2/dir2
dir2/dir2/dir1
dir2/dir2/dir2
dir2/dir4
dir2/dir4/dir1
dir2/dir4/dir2
So am i correct in assuming that
“the excluded files path is relative to the source path iff the source path is absolute”
?
Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
–exclude “*.o” would exclude all filenames matching *.o
–exclude “/foo” would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
–exclude “foo/” would exclude any directory called foo
–exclude “/foo/*/bar” would exclude any file called bar two levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
–exclude “/foo/**/bar” would exclude any file called bar two or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
–include “*/” –include “*.c” –exclude “*” would include all directories and C source files
–include “foo/” –include “foo/bar.c” –exclude “*” would include only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or it would be excluded by the “*”)
Hi Ramesh…
One more time your tip was so helpfull.
Keep writting!
Tks!
Jordan
Great stuff, thanks! Always forget the exclude syntax all the common options in one place 🙂
Hey Guys thnxs for sharing the information.
I need one help:
Say i have the directory “log” located at two locations as:
/a/b/log and
/a/b/c/log
i dont want to exclued the first one in “/a/b/log” but only “/a/b/c/log”.
Thanks
Thank you soooooooooooo much. The instructions were very clear and very helpful!
Hi! You’ve made a mistake in section 4 “Exclude path is always relative”.
It’s true that it is always relative but it’s NOT the same using the leading slash or not to do so. The leading slash indicates the full qualified path beginning at your given transfer-root directory.
See also the man page of rsync:
“””
Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
o “- /foo” would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the transfer-root directory
o “- foo/” would exclude any directory named foo
Kind regards,
Mark
very useful post. adding an update- on OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 bash, rsync does not recognize excludes that start with ‘ – e.g. –exclude ‘*.MOV’ is ignored by rsync. Instead replace with ” e.g. –exclude “*.MOV” or –exclude-from “exclude-list.txt”
This statement:
———————–
$ rsync -avz –exclude ‘/dir1/dir2/file3.txt’ source/ destination/
So, the above command is exactly same as the following. Just to avoid confusion (and to make it easy to read), don’t give / in front of the exclude path.
$ rsync -avz –exclude ‘dir1/dir2/file3.txt’ source/ destination/
———————–
is flat out incorrect. With a slash at the beginning of the exclude value, the pattern is anchored to the top of the directory tree. If you remove the slash then that pattern is matched throughout the entire directory tree (i..e any dir1/dir2/file3.txt further down the tree will be excluded as well).
Furthermore, it makes a difference if the source ends with a slash or not. Remove the slash from the end of “source/” and the search pattern goes back to the parent directory; i.e.
$ rsync -avz –exclude ‘/dir1/dir2/file3.txt’ source destination/
will exclude nothing. Please try and understand how these tools work before writing a blog post like this.
Exclude specify file doesn’t work
rsync -avz –exclude ‘dir1/dir2/file3.txt’ source/ destination/
please help
Thanks, this is very easy to understand.
Enabling compression (-z) on local transfers only results in higher CPU usage.
How do you exclude dot files and directories ?
Really great post.
I stumbledn on it with the question: “Can I exclude from exclude”?, e.g
and then rsync –exclude-from /dir /dir1/sub1
Another open question: does rsyn support complete regex, if so: which one?
like: rsync -exclude “dir/[^a]*”
Regards
J.
Patrick Goetz wrote:
$ rsync -avz –exclude ‘/dir1/dir2/file3.txt’ source destination/
will exclude nothing. Please try and understand how these tools work before writing a blog post like this.
—
Patrick, you’re thinking of tar.
Thanks, very helpfull!
man rsync for everything else!
Hi buddy,
Very good article, simple and clear for my need.