.rsync-/.rsync+ patch and --link-dest example

[jw schultz]

On Tue, Jan 14, 2003 at 09:48:31AM -0700, John Bowman wrote:
> This is a patch to add an --rsync-exclude option to rsync-2.5.6cvs.  
> File names in .rsync- (or .rsync+) are excluded (or included) from the file
> lists associated with the current directory and all of its subdirectories.
> 
> This has advantages over --cvs-exclude for backing up large file systems
> since the .cvsignore files only apply to the current directory:
> unless the .cvsignore restrictions apply to the entire tree they must be
> duplicated in each subdirectory. In any case, the --cvs-exclude option
> isn't intended for general system backups (for example, unless the default
> list is cleared with "!", it automatically excludes *.a libraries).
> 
> The .rsync-/.rsync+ mechanism provided by this simple patch provides a more
> general solution, since files may be added to or removed from the exclude
> list at all levels in the directory hierarchy (similar to apache .htaccess
> files).

An interesting idea.  Would be worthwhile putting in the
patches directory and solicit feedback to see how much use it gets.

You also bring up a good point about the --cvs-exclude
option.  In excluding *.a and *.so it limits its utility.
This should be noted in the manpage.

One wonders if perhaps a subset of --cvs-exclude's fixed
patterns might be worth having as an --bk-exclude option.
Perhaps *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK core
Purely as a convenience.

> This patch also adds an example for using --link-dest to the man page: 
> 
> "This command creates a linked backup of /home named current on nimbus
> relative to a previous backup named previous:
> 
> rsync -vax --delete --numeric-ids --link-dest=previous /home nimbus:current"

I don't know if that is needed.  Lacking context the example
has minimal meaning and compare-dest doesn't have an example
either.

Should be a separate patch.

-- 
________________________________________________________________
	J.W. Schultz            Pegasystems Technologies
	email address:		jw at pegasys.ws

		Remember Cernan and Schmitt