rsync slashes

rsync and significant traiing slashes

rsync and slashes

the trailing slash for directories is important for rsync, get it wrong and your directory becomes nested 10 levels deep at your description

basics

• dir
  • source: include everything in this directory, including the directory
  • destination: place everything in this directory, create if it doesn't exist
• dir/
  • source: include everything in this directory, excluding the directory
  • destination: place everything in this directory, create if it doesn't exist

corollary

• sync directory to destination: rsync -r src parent
  • result: src == parent/src
• sync directory to destination with new name: rsync -r src/ dst/new-src
  • result: src == dst/new-src
• sync directory to existing destination: rsync -r src/ dst/src
  • result: src == dst/src