rsync

see also my mess over at ssh, scp, rsync

only include specific file (pattern)

I only want to sync files which match a specific name and exclude everything else.

• Important: the include/exclude lists are case sensitive.

In this case, I want to sync all files with foo and bar in the name, so it'd match the files foobar and Superduper.jpg

rsync -avP --include={*/,*foo*,*Super*} --exclude='*' rsync://example.com/files/ ~/Downloads

or with individual include arguments:

rsync -avP --include='*.yaml' --include='*.yml' --include='.env' --exclude='.git' --exclude='*' ~/source/ ~/dest/

include / exclude from file pattern

example include_patterns.txt file to specify which files should be included

+ */
+ .env
+ *.yaml
+ *.yml
+ *.txt

use it in rsync like this:

rsync -avxiP --include-from="include_patterns.txt" ~/source ~/dest

this is a basic example, it's worth checking out the filter rules of rsync's man page

do not copy empty directories

-m or --prune-empty-dirs: Prevents rsync from creating empty directories in the destination.

rsync -avPm ~/source ~/dest

delete files on the source

you might want to run this first with -n for a dry run

rsync --remove-source-files -av ~/source ~/dest