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6 rsync Examples to Exclude Multiple Files and Directories using exclude-from

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6 rsync Examples to Exclude Multiple Files

and Directories using exclude-from
by Ramesh Natarajan on January 25, 2011
57

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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
mkdir
touch
touch
touch
touch

-p source/dir1/dir2
-p source/dir3
source/file1.txt
source/file2.txt
source/dir1/dir2/file3.txt
source/dir3/file4.txt

The above command will create a source directory (under your home directory) with the following
structure.

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source
- file1.txt
- file2.txt
- dir1
- dir2
- file3.txt
- dir3
- file4.txt

1. Exclude a specific directory

If you dont want to sync the dir1 (including all its 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
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created directory destination

./
file1.txt
file2.txt

Verify the destination directory to make sure it didnt 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 didnt 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), dont give / in front of the exclude path.
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$ 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 didnt 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 cant 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 dont 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
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./
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
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{ 32 comments add one }

ashwin January 25, 2011, 5:03 am
Thanks for this information, very useful.
Small typo error at point 6, I think it should be files and directories (Instead of are).
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Link
carlos January 25, 2011, 8:01 am
Good post,its very usefull. thank you very much!!! from argentina.
Link
Felix Frank January 25, 2011, 10:32 am
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).
Link
Ramesh Natarajan January 25, 2011, 10:01 pm
@Ashwin,
Thanks for pointing out the typo. It is fixed.
@Felix,
Your amendment are always most welcome, and they are helpful. Thanks.
Link
Jonathan Lumb February 16, 2011, 4:35 pm
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
Link
sathiya March 28, 2011, 1:47 am
It saved my time !!!
Thanks.
Link
Sumesh April 13, 2011, 9:35 am
Really helpful doc. Thanks for sharing.
Link
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Draget July 11, 2011, 1:48 pm

As Felix pointed out, the leading / is of importance. So point 4 should be corrected!
Link
sandeep krishnan August 8, 2011, 3:11 am
Hello Ramesh sir i enjoy reading this article it would be nice if you specify how to use rsync
with ssh on different port
Link
Noel September 8, 2011, 11:12 am
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.
Link
woo September 21, 2011, 5:36 pm
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.
Link
miguelwill October 30, 2011, 7:36 pm
remember exclude-from option:
/tmp/exclude-files:
*.mp3
*.avi
*.iso
*.mpg
rsync -hva exclude-from=/tmp/exclude-files /source /destination
Link
joe March 30, 2012, 9:39 am
great post.
thanks
Link
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Wehibe June 27, 2012, 11:09 am

Thanks for taking the time to post this. It is handy and very helpful
Cheers
Link
Arthur N. Ketcham July 25, 2012, 2:49 pm
Using the exclude option, exclude dir* will not work correctly. With globbing, you need
to use double quotes. So that should be corrected to:
excludedir*
Link
JD December 5, 2012, 9:24 pm
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
Link
iBro December 12, 2012, 8:42 pm
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
./
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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
Link
Owen March 19, 2013, 11:51 pm
So am i correct in assuming that
the excluded files path is relative to the source path iff the source path is absolute
?
Link
everge48 March 21, 2013, 1:17 pm
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 *)
Link
Jordan April 17, 2013, 12:54 pm
Hi Ramesh
One more time your tip was so helpfull.
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Keep writting!
Tks!
Jordan
Link
Seb May 3, 2013, 7:35 am
Great stuff, thanks! Always forget the exclude syntax all the common options in one place
Link
ronak June 6, 2013, 11:23 am
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
Link
Leila October 28, 2014, 12:40 am
Thank you soooooooooooo much. The instructions were very clear and very helpful!
Link
Mark March 27, 2015, 2:33 am
Hi! Youve made a mistake in section 4 Exclude path is always relative.
Its true that it is always relative but its 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
Link
ramy May 23, 2015, 1:15 pm
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
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Link
Patrick Goetz June 18, 2015, 4:50 am
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), dont 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.
Link
nda August 24, 2015, 4:26 am
Exclude specify file doesnt work
rsync -avz exclude dir1/dir2/file3.txt source/ destination/
please help
Link
Akshay Chakre October 30, 2015, 1:02 am
Thanks, this is very easy to understand.
Link
i332095 November 7, 2015, 3:13 pm
Enabling compression (-z) on local transfers only results in higher CPU usage.
Link
Sharjeel March 3, 2016, 1:54 am
How do you exclude dot files and directories ?
Link
J. Mueller March 6, 2016, 4:14 am

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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.
Link
Seth Sanchez March 15, 2016, 10:06 am
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, youre thinking of tar.

Link
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