Hello all!

rsync version: 3.0.9
MacOSX: 10.8.4
Subject: make an exact copy of HD to an external HD with rsync

After long tests I put up my rsync script like follows:

First a long exclude file, which is read in by rsync with the switch

Code:

--exclude-from=path/to/exclude/file.txt

in this file are some legacy files from old MacOSes. So this exclude file should also work for older Macs. But probably not with an older rsync version ...

The following exclude file is from: Some files and folders are automatically excluded from a backup task / Backup and archiving settings / Knowledge Base - Bombich Software Support

Code:

.HFS+ Private Directory Data*
/.journal
/.journal_info_block
.AppleDouble
/lost+found
.metadata_never_index
/.com.apple.timemachine.donotpresent
.VolumeIcon.icns
/TheVolumeSettingsFolder
Saved Application State
.DocumentRevisions-V100
.Spotlight-V100
/.fseventsd
/.hotfiles.btree
/private/var/db/dyld/dyld_*
/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.bootstamps/*
/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.corestorage/*
/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/*
/.com.apple.NetBootX
/Volumes/*
/dev/*
/automount
/Network
/.vol/*
/net
/private/var/folders/*
/private/var/vm/*
/private/tmp/*
/cores
.Trash
.Trashes
/Backups.backupdb
/.MobileBackups
/private/tmp/kacta.txt
/private/tmp/kactd.txt
/PGPWDE01
/PGPWDE02
/.bzvol
/Library/Application Support/Comodo/AntiVirus/Quarantine
.DS_Store

Contrary to Slicehost Articles: rsync - exclude files and folders I found, that spaces and wild cards "*" don't need to escaped with "[ ]" (for spaces) or surrounded by quotes like "file*" for wild cards. And "/" means root folder - as expected -, not the folder from were the script was started.

Here the rules for this exclude files: every excluded file or folder has to be separated by a line.

Suppose, we have following folders, with some contents:

dev
#dev
dev#


dev # backups the folders "#dev" and "dev#", but not "dev"
*dev/ # backups the folder "dev#" and nothing else!
dev/ # backups the folders "#dev" and "dev#"
dev/* # backups the folders "#dev" and "dev#" with its contents and the folder "dev" without
*dev/* # backups an empty "#dev" and "dev" and "dev#" with contents.
dev*/ # backups "#dev" with contents.
*dev*/ # nothing ...
*dev*/* # empty folders: "dev", "#dev", "dev#"


And now the backup script, which you start with, being in the folder where you saved this script:

Code:

sudo ./rsync.sh

Code:

#!/bin/sh

EXCLUDES=$HOME/Documents/programming/backup_script/rsync_exclude.txt

OPTS="-tavu --exclude-from=$EXCLUDES --delete"

EXTERN="backup_2013"
USBDisk="/Volumes/$EXTERN/"

if ls /Volumes/ | grep -q $EXTERN; then
	echo "$EXTERN is mounted! Starting backup ...\n"
else
	echo "Please mount the external HD \"$EXTERN\" before running this script!"
	exit
fi


rsync $OPTS / $USBDisk

Hope this helps some people out there ...


marek