What is a correct exclude list ?

[gabier]

Hello!

I whish to use the RSYNC's option --exclude-from= and give a list of excluded directories. I have tried it different ways and it does not work. I think it is a format problem; I have found examples on the net but I am not sure if it is the same in FreeBSD.
I know this is a newbie question but if somebody has used it, it will be quicker than to guess and try all possible variations.
1. Should the "--exclude-from" string be followed by an "=" sign (I have seen examples without it) ?
2. Should the name of the list be between quotes "--exclude-from=list.txt" or "--exclude-from='list.txt' " ?
3. Should the name of the list be given by full path or relative to the source top directory ?
4. In the list should each of the lines be between quotes (if yes should the leading + or minus sign be also between quotes ?
5. in the list, is each line/exclusion relative to the top directory of source or full path ?

Thanks

gabier

[gabier]

As I am not patient, or certainly not enough, I just spent 2 hours building a simple example of rsync with a few little directories, and changing the rsync options until the exclusion works.
Here are my findings (they come from my example which works, maybe there are other valid syntaxes)

1. Should the "--exclude-from" string be followed by an "=" sign (I have seen examples without it) ? NO (or at least NOT MANDATORY)
2. Should the name of the list be between quotes "--exclude-from=list.txt" or "--exclude-from='list.txt' " ? YES
3. Should the name of the list be given by full path or relative to the source top directory ? Full path relative to the home directory
4. In the list should each of the lines be between quotes (if yes should the leading + or minus sign be also between quotes ? NO
5. in the list, is each line/exclusion relative to the top directory of source or full path ? TO BOTTOM DIRECTORY OF SOURCE PATH

I add: if you want to exclude a directory and its content, you should write DIR/ and not /DIR/

I hope this can help.

gabier