rsync - Jan 2026 - Copying one directory tree to another but exclude all top-level files

It sounds like you want: --include='/*' --exclude='/*/' but I am
having
a bit of trouble understanding your goal.? You are right though that an 
exclude of * means exclude everything.

BTW, a second -v enables include/exclude debugging.

On 2026-01-30 08:23, Brian J. Murrell via rsync wrote:
> Hi.
>
> I want to do this:
>
> # rsync -aSPAHX --exclude \* --link-dest=/.snapshots/daily.10/ ../daily.10/
.
>
> so that any *files* in the /.snapshots/daily.10/ directory (but not any
> directories in /.snapshots/daily.10/ and directories and files below
> that) are excluded?
>
> Using the above syntax, nothing gets copied I suppose because * matches
> all of the top-level directories in /.snapshots/daily.10/ also.
>
> Cheers,
> b.
>

On Fri, 2026-01-30 at 08:56 -0500, Kevin Korb via rsync
wrote:
> It sounds like you want: --include='/*' --exclude='/*/'
No.  That doesn't work either.
> but I am having 
> a bit of trouble understanding your goal.
Unfortunately I'm not sure how to make it any more clear than I did
already.

I want to copy a directory tree to another location but not copy any
**files** at the top of the tree.

Using `--exclude-from <(find . -maxdepth 1 -type f -printf "%P\n")`
instead of `--exclude *` achieves the goal (so maybe that is more
illustrative of my goal), but I was hoping to achieve the goal without
having to involve an external process.  I.e. with just --include/--
exclude switches.
> You are right though that an 
> exclude of * means exclude everything.
Indeed.
> BTW, a second -v enables include/exclude debugging.
Thanks.

Cheers,
b.