exclude a pattern but only in the top level

[Brian K. White]

On 5/16/2013 2:38 AM, Paul Slootman wrote:
> On Wed 15 May 2013, Brian K. White wrote:
>
>> I did in the case when it was only one pattern, but that was just a
>> simplified example.
>>
>> The actual job involves too many include and exclude patterns to use
>> --include & --exclude, or even --include-from and --exclude-from,
>> because the patterns are generated on the fly by a script from
>> values supplied on the script commandline or hardcoded at the top,
>
> I think you're missing the point.
>
> --exclude-from=filename will do the same.
> -f ". filename" specifies a rule, and that rule tells rsync to read the
> file.  --exclude-from=filename tells rsync directly to read the file.

--exclude-from "is related to the --exclude option ... specifies a FILE 
that contains exclude patterns"

--exclude "defaults  to  an  exclude rule  and  does  not  allow  the 
full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules."

-- 
bkw