Question

313

How to exclude multiple directories with rsync?

rated 0 times [ 313] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 368216 / 2 Years ago, thu, march 24, 2022, 2:35:41

I am trying to backup my home directory using rsync, and I want to exclude some of the directories that contain junk. I want to specifically exclude /home/ben/.ccache and /home/ben/build. Unfortunately the documentation for rsync was information overload and didn't answer my question. This is what I tried:

rsync -arv --exclude "/home/ben/.ccache:/home/ben/build" /home/ben /media/ben/thumbdrive/

What is the right way to do this?

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1 Year ago

answered 2 Years ago learty · Accepted Answer

To exclude multiple directories you just use multiple --exclude=path switches. So the command from the question properly written is as follows:

rsync -arv --exclude=.ccache --exclude=build /home/ben /media/ben/thumbdrive/

Note: Use relative paths with exclude. The paths are relative to the source directory, here /home/ben.