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up vote 2 down vote favorite

I want to copy a folder to another location, while excluding some specific files

Here is my current script:

#!/bin/bash

if [ -n "$2" ]
then
    source=$(readlink -f $1)
    destination=$(readlink -f $2)
else
    printf "\nProper syntax: my_copy source_folder destination_folder\n"
        exit
fi


params=(
    --exclude='.git'
    --exclude='deploy'
    --exclude='app/config/database.php'
    --exclude='app/config/config.php'
)


cd $source
rsync " -a ${params[@]} $source/* $destination"

When I run my script, I get this error:

rsync: link_stat "-a --exclude=.git" failed: No such file or directory (2)
rsync error: some files/attrs were not transferred (see previous errors) (code 23) at main.c(1070) [sender=3.0.9]

What am I doing wrong?

share|improve this question
    
rsync -a "${params[@]}" $source/ $destination if not work then try echo rsync -a "${params[@]}" $source/ $destination| sh –  Rahul Patil Sep 10 '13 at 11:30
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2 Answers 2

up vote 2 down vote accepted

To see what's happening change the rsync command to an echo command first. 

$ echo "rsync \" -a ${params[@]} $source/* $destination\""

Potential Fixes

I would change that line to this instead:

$ rsync -a "${params[@]}" "$source/"* "$destination"
share|improve this answer
    
why multi source and destination there ? –  Rahul Patil Sep 10 '13 at 11:33
    
@RahulPatil - not following your question –  slm♦ Sep 10 '13 at 11:39
1  
@Loupax - get rid of the double quotes around the arguments. I think that was the original issue. See update. You can try it with and without the $(echo ...) –  slm♦ Sep 10 '13 at 12:00
1  
First script, feels good :) –  Loupax Sep 10 '13 at 12:09
1  
@Loupax - good looking first script. Good use of arrays, thinking the right way! –  slm♦ Sep 10 '13 at 12:15
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up vote 0 down vote

If you'd written this:

rsync " -a $params $source/* $destination"

then the rsync command would be getting a single string as its argument, because all the variables are expanded inside double quotes. For example, if $params is --exclude=.git, $source is /somewhere and $destination is /elsewhere then the argument would be

 -a --exclude=.git /somewhere/* /elsewhere

There's an added wrinkle: "${params[@]}" splits the array into separate parameters. The text before ${params[@]} is attached to the first array element and the text after ${params[@]} is attached to the last array element. So rsync is called with four parameters:

 -a --exclude=.git
--exclude=deploy
--exclude=app/config/database.php
--exclude=app/config/config.php /somewhere/* /elsewhere

Each parameter must be a separate double-quoted string. You need the double quotes to protect the expansion of the variables in case they contain whitespace or wildcard characters. For the array expanded with ${NAME[@]}, "${NAME[@]}" places each element in a separate parameter. The spaces that separate elements, and the characters that are intended to function as wildcards, must remain unquoted.

rsync -a "${params[@]}" -- "$source"/* "$destination"

This excludes dot files directly under $source, because of the /. To copy files under $source to files with the same name under $destination, just put a slash after the path to the source directory.

rsync -a "${params[@]}" -- "$source/" "$destination"
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