which rsync command?

[David Epstein]

This is looking good and very helpful to an rsync novice. I will try the modification

rsync --dry-run -avi --delete --filter 'protect /*’ --filter ‘protect /.*’  SOURCE/ TARGET/

and see what it produces. I do have a number of directories and files beginning with a dot in TARGET and these need to be protected.
Unfortunately, the output from —dry-run is still likely to be sufficiently extensive that looking over it won’t be a completely certain test.

I therefore ask
"Does the above modification seem right to the experts?”

Two supplementary points, if I may. Do you advise -ai or -avi? And why do you prefer one over the other?
I don’t understand the line of rsync output that reads

 .d..t...... ./

David

> On 23 Feb 2017, at 17:02, <Francis.Montagnac at inria.fr> <Francis.Montagnac at inria.fr> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi.
> 
> On Thu, 23 Feb 2017 11:07:16 -0500 Kevin Korb wrote:
> 
>> I hate to say it because it goes against my normal advice but this is
>> one instance where using a * in the source parameter would help...
> 
> I totally agree.
> 
> I thing that using a protect filter achieves this goal (without using
> a * thus).
> 
> Example:
> 
>    mkdir SOURCE/{a,b,c}
>    mkdir TARGET/d
> 
>    ## FAIL: delete d
>    rsync --dry-run -ai --delete SOURCE/ TARGET/ 
>    *deleting   d/
>    .d..t...... ./
>    cd+++++++++ a/
>    cd+++++++++ b/
>    cd+++++++++ c/
> 
>    ## OK: for this trivial test
>    rsync --dry-run -ai --delete --filter 'protect /*' SOURCE/ TARGET/
>    .d..t...... ./
>    cd+++++++++ a/
>    cd+++++++++ b/
>    cd+++++++++ c/
> 
> You may need to read carefully the FILTER RULES section of the rsync
> manual. I didn't count the number of time I read it :-)
> 
> ---
> Francis