Rsync how to include directories but not files?

Question

I have a directory structure and files like this

data/
data/a.txt
data/folder/
data/folder/b.txt
data/folder/folder/
data/folder/folder/c.txt
...


        

Answer 1

rsync -a -f"-! */" source/ destination/

Filter rule means "Exclude anything that's not a directory."

Answer 2

If you want to sync everything except one folder but you still want to keep the directory structure of that excluded folder, you should do the following:

$ rsync -a -f"+ /var/log/**/*/" -f"- /var/log/**/*" source/ destination/

See the exclude-list and the rsync command as an example.

Answer 3

rsync -a --include='*/' --exclude='*' source/ destination/

Basically, first include all directories, then exclude all files.

Answer 4

$ rsync -a -f"+ */" -f"- *" source/ destination/

"The two -f arguments mean, respectively, "copy all directories" and then "do not copy anything else"."

Further details: http://psung.blogspot.com/2008/05/copying-directory-trees-with-rsync.html