The —exclude option in RSYNC is used to exclude files or directories from being synchronized in the RSYNC process. RSYNC, which stands for Remote Sync, is a tool used in Linux operating systems for copying and synchronizing files and directories remotely as well as locally in your system. It is used to maintain backups, configuration management, and mirroring.
The syntax for using the —exclude option in RSYNC is as follows:
`rsync -a —exclude ‘directory_or_filename’ source_directory destination_directory`
When the —exclude option is employed, the specified file or directory will be excluded from the synchronization between the source and the destination. It’s handy when you have certain files or directories that you do not want to be included in the backup or sync.
For instance, if you are synchronizing a directory that contains various file types and you want to exclude all .txt files, you can use the —exclude option in the following way:
`rsync -a —exclude ‘*.txt’ /source/directory /destination/directory`
This command will sync all files in the source directory with the destination directory, excluding the .txt files. Alternatively, you could exclude multiple file types at the same time. If you wanted to exclude both .txt and .jpg files, you could use:
`rsync -a —exclude ‘.txt’ —exclude ‘.jpg’ /source/directory /destination/directory`
This command would exclude both .txt and .jpg files from the synchronization. The array syntax also works with directory names.
You can also use the —exclude option from a file, which is handy when you have multiple files or directories to exclude from the synchronization. To do this, you create a file (e.g., exclude.txt) and list the directories and/or files you want to exclude, one per line. Then, you use the —exclude-from option like so:
`rsync -a —exclude-from=‘exclude.txt’ /source/directory /destination/directory`
These are just a few examples of how the —exclude option can be used in RSYNC to exclude certain files or directories from the synchronization process.
Relevant sources for this information include the RSYNC manual, which can be accessed via `man rsync` on Unix-based systems. The official documentation for RSYNC also provides extensive information on the use of various options, including —exclude. Several Linux-related websites, wikis and forums, such as Linux Handbook, Cyberciti, and StackExchange, also provide helpful information and real-world examples of RSYNC usage.
