I've been working on an update to my --files-from patch that I think
will soon be ready to be committed to CVS. See if you agree.
For those that have been following the saga, here's a list of just the
changes since the last patch (for those that haven't, see the next
section):
Changes Since the Last Release:
===============================
- The --null option was renamed to --from0 and made to effect all the
--*-from options (--include-from, --exclude-from, and --files-from).
It has a short-option name of just "-0".
- Both the include/exclude and --files-from file-reading code now
allows either CR or LF to indicate a line-ending character (which
makes rsync work with Unix, DOS, and/or Mac files in all versions).
- The protocol was tweaked to always send the --files-from data null-
terminated when it has to send it over the socket. It also ignores
empty lines now and the EOF marker (for the socket send) is now
"////".
- The --files-from data can now contain full-line comments that start
with either '#' or ';' (like the include/exclude files).
- The new options are now documented.
What Is the --files-from Option?
================================
This option allows the user to specify an explicit list of files to
transfer, much like could be done on the command-line, but without an
overly restrictive limit on how many files can be specified. This can
be much more efficient than doing a recursive directory scan using
include & exclude rules, and enables more complex selection criteria
than can be done by name-matching alone (since the file list is created
by whatever means you desire).
It might help to visualize this new command:
rsync -a --files-from=/some/list /source remote:/dest
as being roughly equivalent to this old command (note the lack of -r and
the presence of -R -- it's not a mistake):
cd /source
rsync -lptgoD -R `cat /some/list` remote:/dest
With these exceptions:
- Directories mentioned in the "list" file are created on the
destination (without transferring their contents unless -r is
specified).
- Paths in the "list" are sanitized to ensure that they don't refer
anywhere outside of the default ("/source") dir.
- The number of files is not limited by the command-line character
limit.
- You can specify a list of files separated by nulls (instead of
newlines) if you add the --from0 option.
- You can get the /some/list file from the remote end of the connection
by specifying either "remote:/some/list" or just ":/some/list" (note
that "remote" must be the same hostname as one end of the transfer).
Where To Get It:
================
http://www.blorf.net/rsync-files-from.patch
Still To-Do:
============
- The patch needs testing to ensure that it is working well (I've
tested all 4 combinations of send direction and list-file source
location, but more is needed).
- I need to ensure that the user's input data doesn't contain a line
of just "////" or the transfer will get messed up (and this may
well allow an attack on a server daemon).
Enjoy!
..wayne..
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