What's wrong with my exclude rules?

[John Van Essen]

On Wed, 23 Feb 2005, Danny Sauer <rsync at danny.teleologic.net> wrote:
>
> So, given this (broken up for email - it's all one line in the
> script):
> 
> /usr/bin/rsync -q -a -e ssh -H --delete --delete-excluded
>  --ignore-errors --include "/" --exclude "/proc/*"
>  --exclude "/proc/bus/usb/*" --include "/boot/*"
>  --exclude "/dev/pts/*" --exclude "/dev/shm/*"
>  --exclude '/tmp/*' --exclude '/var/tmp/*'
>  --exclude '/usr/tmp/*' --exclude '/var/cache/*'
>  --exclude '*~'
>  root at router:/ /mnt/backup/router
>
> Why do I have this:
> 
>  gutenberg backup # ls -l /mnt/backup/router/proc | head -n 10
>  total 140634
>  dr-xr-xr-x   3 root    root          336 Feb 23 11:18 1
>  dr-xr-xr-x   3 root    root          312 Feb 23 11:18 10
>  dr-xr-xr-x   3     501     501       336 Feb 23 11:18 1059
>  dr-xr-xr-x   3 root    root          312 Feb 23 11:18 11
>  dr-xr-xr-x   3 postfix postfix       336 Feb 23 11:18 1448
>  dr-xr-xr-x   3 root    root          312 Feb 23 11:18 15
>  dr-xr-xr-x   3 root    root          336 Feb 23 11:18 1607
>  dr-xr-xr-x   3 root    root          336 Feb 23 11:18 1609
>  dr-xr-xr-x   3 root    root          312 Feb 23 11:18 2
> 
> I've clearly listed --exclude "/proc/*" and --delete-excluded, but
> there's still stuff in /proc.  I've tried --exclude="/proc" and
> --exclude "/proc/" - but friggin' /proc is getting copied every time.
> None of the other excludes seem to be followed either - which is a
> royal pain.  Is it the order (or the --include /)?  What's the
> precedence of --include and --exclude?

There is no precedence.  The patterns are tested in the order in which
the options are specified.  The first pattern to match determines the
action based on its associated include/exclude option.

The --include "/" is superfluous - including the top-level dirctory is
the default initial rule.  I've never seen anyone using this...

Have you tried the rsync without it?  The "/" could be interpreted in
two ways - as the explicit top-level root directory, or as a trailing
slash on a null directory, which rsync might treat the same as a "*/".
That means include all directories, which would cause the problem that
you are experiencing.

What version of rsync are you using, btw?
-- 
        John Van Essen  Univ of Minn. Alumnus  <vanes002 at umn.edu>