How to rsync so that you get the directories right (such as when I do a deploy)

RsyncTutorial.md

Rsync Tutorial

How to use it without tossing files everywhere

• Pretty good tutorial: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-rsync-to-sync-local-and-remote-directories-on-a-vps

Important options

• -a archive, use this if recursive + 'preserves symbolic links, special and device files, modification times, group, owner, and permissions'
• -n Dry run - don't do anything
• --delete Delete files that aren't in source
• -t Preserve modification times (I think?)
• -v Increase verbosity
• -q Suppress non-error messages
• -P Keep partially transfered, and show progress. When I use this, I don't think -v helps?
• -h Human readable
• -z Compress - use for text files maybe?
• --exclude= Exclude based on pattern (comma separated list)
• --include= Include based on pattern (comma separated list)

Setup

file structure

- a
> - thing.txt
- b

Tests

rsync -a a b

- a
> - thing.txt
- b
  - a
  > - thing.txt

rsync -a a b/

- a
> - thing.txt
- b
  - a
  > - thing.txt

rsync -a a/ b/

- a
> - thing.txt
- b
> - thing.txt

rsync -a a/ b

- a
> - thing.txt
- b
> - thing.txt

rsync -a a/* b

- a
> - thing.txt
- b
> - thing.txt

rsync -a a b

>>>Before
- a
> - thing.txt
- b
  - a
  > - hi.txt
=========
- a
> - thing.txt
- b
  - a
  > - hi.txt
  > - thing.txt
<<<After