rsync - Mar 2010 - Specify Includes Only

Hi, sorry if this has been asked before, but I just can't find anywhere on
the net that tells me how to do this. I've been trying for ages to get this
right, using various forms of --include-from, --exclude, --filter, etc.

I want to copy only specific directories that contain specific filetypes, from
sourcedir to destdir. For example, I want to copy all .mp3 and all .ogg files
found in the GroupA, GroupC directories under /home/paul/sourcedir/. For
example, if I have

/home/paul/sourcedir/GroupA/Album1/song.mp3
/home/paul/sourcedir/GroupA/Album1/cover.jpg
/home/paul/sourcedir/GroupA/Album2/song.ogg
/home/paul/sourcedir/GroupA/Album2/cover.jpg
/home/paul/sourcedir/GroupB/Album1/song.mp3
/home/paul/sourcedir/GroupC/Album1/song.mp3
/home/paul/sourcedir/GroupC/Album1/song2.mp3

then I want to end up with

/home/paul/destdir/GroupA/Album1/song.mp3
/home/paul/destdir/GroupA/Album2/song.ogg
/home/paul/destdir/GroupC/Album1/song.mp3
/home/paul/destdir/GroupC/Album1/song2.mp3

I have tried various forms of

+ *.mpg
+ *.ogg
+ /GroupA/***
+ /GroupC/***

into an --include-from file, but it just copies everything under GroupA and
GroupC, regardless if it's .mp3 and .ogg.

Is there no way to do this: "copy these extensions in these
directories"? I don't want to specify the extensions to NOT include,
because they could be anything, I know that I just want mp3 and ogg types.

Thank you!

-- 

.

On 2010/03/13 3:33 PM, Paul wrote:
> I want to copy only specific directories that contain specific
> filetypes, from sourcedir to destdir. For example, I want to copy all
> .mp3 and all .ogg files found in the GroupA, GroupC directories under
> /home/paul/sourcedir/. For example, if I have
> 
> /home/paul/sourcedir/GroupA/Album1/song.mp3
> /home/paul/sourcedir/GroupA/Album1/cover.jpg
> /home/paul/sourcedir/GroupA/Album2/song.ogg
> /home/paul/sourcedir/GroupA/Album2/cover.jpg
> /home/paul/sourcedir/GroupB/Album1/song.mp3
> /home/paul/sourcedir/GroupC/Album1/song.mp3
> /home/paul/sourcedir/GroupC/Album1/song2.mp3
> 
> then I want to end up with
> 
> /home/paul/destdir/GroupA/Album1/song.mp3
> /home/paul/destdir/GroupA/Album2/song.ogg
> /home/paul/destdir/GroupC/Album1/song.mp3
> /home/paul/destdir/GroupC/Album1/song2.mp3
Try something like this ($ is the command-line prompt):

$ cd /home/paul

$ cat >filt.txt <<EOF
+ */
+ *.mp3
+ *.ogg
- *
EOF

$ cat >dirs.txt <<EOF
sourcedir/GroupA
sourcedir/GroupC
EOF

$ rsync -r --include-from=filt.txt --prune-empty-dirs `cat dirs.txt` destdir

Explanation:

The rules in filt.txt include all directories and all files
that end in .mp3 or .ogg, and exclude everything else. The
--prune-empty-dirs option prevents rsync from creating
empty directories (or more precisely, it causes rsync to
delete any empty directories that it creates).

HTH,
-SM
--