I'm attempting to sync remote files to a local directory. The following command works for me:

rsync -avz [email protected]:/remote/path/ /local/path

It asks for my password, I enter it, and it starts downloading/syncing files.

If I try and exclude a directory, however...

rsync -avz —-exclude='remote/dir' [email protected]:/remote/path/ /local/path

...it throws the following error:

Unexpected remote arg: [email protected]:/remote/path/
rsync error: syntax or usage error (code 1) at main.c(1372) [sender=3.1.3]

1 Answer

As you can see in this website about rsync usage, you can exclude a specific directory by typing:

rsync -a --exclude 'dir1' src_directory/ dst_directory/

Substitute your command from:

rsync -avz --exclude='remote/dir' [email protected]:/path/ /local/path

To this one:

rsync -avz --exclude 'dir' [email protected]:/home/user/dir /place_to_sync_on_local_machine/

Make sure you're not typing the whole address in the --exclude flag. Just the directory you wanted to exclude. It should work without problems.

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