lftp exclude syntax confusion

Question

I am confused with the syntax description given for lftp from their website:

-x RX,   --exclude=RX              exclude matching files
-X GP,   --exclude-glob=GP         exclude matching files

How exactly do I exclude certain files during mirroring ??

--exclude filea --exclude fileb --exclude filec
--exclude filea fileb filec
--exclude ./filea ./fileb filec

I have also googled it and cannot find any examples of exclude statements ?!

Answer 1

-x RX is for matching using a Regular eXpression, like in egrep(), while -X GX is used for Glob Pattern matching, which is essentially just normal character matching, apart from *. So for example:

# To exclude .svn directories use:
mirror -e -x ^\.svn/$ /myhome/ /elsewhere

# To exclude all folders starting with a dot:
mirror -e -x /\..+/$ /myhome/ /elsewhere

# To exclude all *.bin AND *.so files:
mirror -e -X *.bin -X *.so /myhome/ /elsewhere

As you can see, you'll have to use the -X for each filetype, since you're not able to give a list, afaik.

Answer 2

Here's my (verified, working) take:

Excluding:

• hidden folders & files (also covers .git)
• the scripts/ - Folder (where I keep my deploy.sh)
• various active / dangerous / preparation / superficious files ( nb: regExp with a pipe | operator make (her: inner, single) quotes necessary)

deploy.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# switch to script parent dir == project dir
cd "$(dirname $(dirname $0))"

if ! [[ "$PWD" =~ \/myproject$ ]]; then
    echo "you are not in the myproject folder!"
    exit 1
fi

# a (relatively) good place to store your credits (outside repo, ...)
read FTPCREDITS < ~/.ssh/creds/FTPCREDITS

if [ -z "$FTPCREDITS" ]; then
    echo "Could NOT read credits. Exiting."
    exit 2
fi

ok, and finally:

lftp -c "set ftp:list-options -a;                                  \
    open $FTPCREDITS;                                               \
    lcd .;                                                         \
    mirror --reverse --delete --use-cache --verbose --allow-chown  \
    --allow-suid --no-umask --parallel=2                           \
    -x '^\.' -x '^script\/'                                        \
    -x '\.(psd|rev|log|cmd|bat|pif|scr|exe|c?sh|reg|vb?|ws?)$'     \
    ;                                                              \
    close -a;"

good for testing:

• --dry-run (naturally)
• ./script/deploy.sh | grep Transferring to see more of the relevant