Using Rsync include and exclude options to include directory and file by pattern

Here's my "teach a person to fish" answer:

Rsync's syntax is definitely non-intuitive, but it is worth understanding.

1. First, use -vvv to see the debug info for rsync.

$ rsync -nr -vvv --include="**/file_11*.jpg" --exclude="*" /Storage/uploads/ /website/uploads/

[sender] hiding directory 1280000000 because of pattern *
[sender] hiding directory 1260000000 because of pattern *
[sender] hiding directory 1270000000 because of pattern *

The key concept here is that rsync applies the include/exclude patterns for each directory recursively. As soon as the first include/exclude is matched, the processing stops.

The first directory it evaluates is /Storage/uploads. Storage/uploads has 1280000000/, 1260000000/, 1270000000/ dirs/files. None of them match file_11*.jpg to include. All of them match * to exclude. So they are excluded, and rsync ends.

2. The solution is to include all dirs (*/) first. Then the first dir component will be 1260000000/, 1270000000/, 1280000000/ since they match */. The next dir component will be 1260000000/. In 1260000000/, file_11_00.jpg matches --include="file_11*.jpg", so it is included. And so forth.

$ rsync -nrv --include='*/' --include="file_11*.jpg" --exclude="*" /Storage/uploads/ /website/uploads/

./
1260000000/
1260000000/file_11_00.jpg
1260000000/file_11_01.jpg
1270000000/
1270000000/file_11_00.jpg
1270000000/file_11_01.jpg
1280000000/
1280000000/file_11_00.jpg
1280000000/file_11_01.jpg

https://download.samba.org/pub/rsync/rsync.1

The problem is that --exclude="*" says to exclude (for example) the 1260000000/ directory, so rsync never examines the contents of that directory, so never notices that the directory contains files that would have been matched by your --include.

I think the closest thing to what you want is this:

rsync -nrv --include="*/" --include="file_11*.jpg" --exclude="*" /Storage/uploads/ /website/uploads/

(which will include all directories, and all files matching file_11*.jpg, but no other files), or maybe this:

rsync -nrv --include="/[0-9][0-9][0-9]0000000/" --include="file_11*.jpg" --exclude="*" /Storage/uploads/ /website/uploads/

(same concept, but much pickier about the directories it will include).

rsync include exclude pattern examples:

"*"         means everything
"dir1"      transfers empty directory [dir1]
"dir*"      transfers empty directories like: "dir1", "dir2", "dir3", etc...
"file*"     transfers files whose names start with [file]
"dir**"     transfers every path that starts with [dir] like "dir1/file.txt", "dir2/bar/ffaa.html", etc...
"dir***"    same as above
"dir1/*"    does nothing
"dir1/**"   does nothing
"dir1/***"  transfers [dir1] directory and all its contents like "dir1/file.txt", "dir1/fooo.sh", "dir1/fold/baar.py", etc...

And final note is that simply dont rely on asterisks that are used in the beginning for evaluating paths; like "**dir" (its ok to use them for single folders or files but not paths) and note that more than two asterisks dont work for file names.