rsync - Jul 2024 - A question about rsync filters, not sure if I understand the man page

I run a daily backup using 'rsync -a -F ....'

I want to exclude everything in ~/.local/share **except** the file:-

   /home/chris/.local/share/evolution/calendar/system/calendar.ics

I have the following in my rsync-filter file to exclude ~/.local/share

  - .local/share

Can I simply add the following before the exclude line:-

  + /home/chris/.local/share/evolution/calendar/system/calendar.ics

It's not quite clear (to me anyway) if this will work or do I have to
somehow add something further to allow the calendar.ics file to be
found?  It's the following bit that **seems** to be saying the above
won't work:-

    It is also important to understand that the include/exclude
    rules are applied to every file and directory that the sender is
    recursing into.  Thus, if you want a particular deep file to be
    included, you have to make sure that none of the directories that must
    be traversed on the way down to that file are excluded or else the
    file will never be discovered to be included.  As an example, if the
    directory "a/path" was given as a transfer argument and you want
to
    ensure that the file "a/path/down/deep/wanted.txt" is a part of
the
    transfer, then the sender must not exclude the directories
"a/path",
    "a/path/down", or "a/path/down/deep" as it makes it way
scanning
    through the file tree.




-- 
Chris Green

Hi.

On Tue, 16 Jul 2024 16:00:47 +0100 Chris Green via rsync wrote:
> I run a daily backup using 'rsync -a -F ....'
> I want to exclude everything in ~/.local/share **except** the file:-
>    /home/chris/.local/share/evolution/calendar/system/calendar.ics
> I have the following in my rsync-filter file to exclude ~/.local/share
>   - .local/share
> Can I simply add the following before the exclude line:-
>   + /home/chris/.local/share/evolution/calendar/system/calendar.ics
No. Assuming you are doing this backup from your homedir, you should
add to your .rsync-filter file:

  + /.local/
  + /.local/share/
  + /.local/share/evolution/
  + /.local/share/evolution/calendar/
  + /.local/share/evolution/calendar/system/
  + /.local/share/evolution/calendar/system/calendar.ics
  - /.local/share/**

The leading / does not means the / of the machine, but the root of the
transfer (assuming this is your homedir).

-- 
francis