rsync include-from problems

Question

I'm having troubles with the rsync --include-from command. I've read the tips from the first 3 pages in google matching my problem, but I still can't get it to work.

Here is what I want to do. We have 2 server, and I want to sync data from one server to the other. But I only want to send the directories and files that should be transferred. All other dirs/files are not needed.

I created a file called include_files which contains the following data:

+ test1/*
+ test1/tekstbestand.txt
- *

And my command is: rsync -anv --include-from=/home/otsadmin/include_files otsadmin@nisbak:/home/otsadmin/tmp /home/otsadmin/

The output always stays the same:

receiving incremental file list sent 56 bytes received 10 bytes 44.00 bytes/sec total size is 0 speedup is 0.00 (DRY RUN)

Please help me understand what I'm doing wrong. Or isn't it even possible in the first place.

Answer 1

I had this problem for ages, you need to specify the folder then the file :-

+ test1
+ test1/tekstbestand.txt
- *

Or alternatively, if you want to include everything in /test1 then the following

+ test1
+ test1/**
- *