I am using rsync with --files-from to specify an exclusive list of files for rsync to back up to an rsync server. I give rsync the list using find to spit out a list of files that are 2 or more days old from a list of files that can change. The backup of the files works perfectly, however I realized that once the files are stored on the backup server, I have no way of informing rsync the next time around if there are files it should *delete* from the rsync server, as I want the rsync server to contain only the files & folders that the source system has, and nothing more (ie, like you would using --delete).
I thought I could use --include-from and then add --exclude='*' to see if rsync would backup what I needed and then delete anything not in my list from the rsync server side, however it did not, not to mention coming up quite short in the list of files it should have backed up (only backed up about 10% of the files I told it to). After messing with options for about 4-5 hours, I seem to have only 2 useable options: 1) wipe out all files from the rsync server prior to doing my backup to ensure the rsync server has only the current files, and no files that no longer exist on the source system 2) request a wishlist feature which allows rsync on the source system to tell the rsync server to delete all files NOT in the --files-from list. #2 is preferrable, and I was hoping something like that already existed, however I was unable to get anything to work for me that would do this. Does anyone have any suggestions for things maybe I haven't thought of? Failing that, is my wishlist item feasable? If so would someone here be willing to implement it for me (and how soon could that be done)? Eli. -- To unsubscribe or change options: https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/rsync Before posting, read: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
