Script to clone / backup a directory excluding certain files that may not be of interest for pure archival backups that aren't intended to serve as full fidelity backups of the original.

rsync_clonedir

#!/bin/sh

# Script to clone / backup a directory using rsync excluding certain files that may not be of
# interest for pure archival backups that aren't intended be full fidelity. The intention is
# that the exclude file will be populated with cached data or uninteresting metadata.
# Use sudo to call this script if you need to copy directories where you don't have permissions.

# rsync options:
# -a                        archive mode; equals -rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-X)
# -x                        don't cross device boundaries (ignore mounted volumes)
# -v                        increase verbosity
# --sparse                  handle sparse files efficiently
# --progress                show progress during transfer
# --stats                   give some file-transfer stats
# --human-readable          output numbers in a human-readable format
# --delete                  deletes any files that have been deleted locally
# --exclude-from            reference a list of files to exclude (uses rsync_exclude.txt)

# options NOT included (needed for a working backups only)
# -E                        preserve executability and resource forks (._* files)

SRC="$1"
DST="$2"
RSYNC_OPTS="-axv --sparse --progress --stats --human-readable --delete"

#
# In order to load the exclude file list we get directory of the shell script resolving symlinks
# as needed. We do this in case the script is symlinked into someplace like /usr/local/bin
# so we don't have to put the exclude file in the bin directory too.
# Credit: https://gist.github.com/sourcerer-mike/7395428
#
SOURCE="${BASH_SOURCE[0]}"
while [ -h "$SOURCE" ]; do
  DIR="$( cd -P "$( dirname "$SOURCE" )" && pwd )"
  SOURCE="$(readlink "$SOURCE")"
  [[ $SOURCE != /* ]] && SOURCE="$DIR/$SOURCE" #
done
PROG_DIR="$( cd -P "$( dirname "$SOURCE" )" && pwd )"

# Define the exclude variable only if we find the exclude file
if [ -f "$PROG_DIR/rsync_excludes.txt" ]; then
   RSYNC_EXCL="--exclude-from=$PROG_DIR/rsync_excludes.txt"
fi

echo "\nStart directory copy: $SRC ==> $DST\n"

rsync $RSYNC_OPTS "$RSYNC_EXCL" "$SRC" "$DST"

echo "\nEnd directory backup\a"
exit 0

rsync_excludes.txt

._*