---
title: "Filtering"
description: "Filtering, includes and excludes"
date: "2016-02-09"
---

# Filtering, includes and excludes #

Rclone has a sophisticated set of include and exclude rules. Some of
these are based on patterns and some on other things like file size.

The filters are applied for the `copy`, `sync`, `move`, `ls`, `lsl`,
`md5sum`, `sha1sum`, `size`, `delete` and `check` operations.
Note that `purge` does not obey the filters.

Each path as it passes through rclone is matched against the include
and exclude rules like `--include`, `--exclude`, `--include-from`,
`--exclude-from`, `--filter`, or `--filter-from`. The simplest way to
try them out is using the `ls` command, or `--dry-run` together with
`-v`.

**Important** Due to limitations of the command line parser you can
only use any of these options once - if you duplicate them then rclone
will use the last one only.

## Patterns ##

The patterns used to match files for inclusion or exclusion are based
on "file globs" as used by the unix shell.

If the pattern starts with a `/` then it only matches at the top level
of the directory tree, **relative to the root of the remote** (not
necessarily the root of the local drive). If it doesn't start with `/`
then it is matched starting at the **end of the path**, but it will
only match a complete path element:

    file.jpg  - matches "file.jpg"
              - matches "directory/file.jpg"
              - doesn't match "afile.jpg"
              - doesn't match "directory/afile.jpg"
    /file.jpg - matches "file.jpg" in the root directory of the remote
              - doesn't match "afile.jpg"
              - doesn't match "directory/file.jpg"

**Important** Note that you must use `/` in patterns and not `\` even
if running on Windows.

A `*` matches anything but not a `/`.

    *.jpg  - matches "file.jpg"
           - matches "directory/file.jpg"
           - doesn't match "file.jpg/something"

Use `**` to match anything, including slashes (`/`).

    dir/** - matches "dir/file.jpg"
           - matches "dir/dir1/dir2/file.jpg"
           - doesn't match "directory/file.jpg"
           - doesn't match "adir/file.jpg"

A `?` matches any character except a slash `/`.

    l?ss  - matches "less"
          - matches "lass"
          - doesn't match "floss"

A `[` and `]` together make a a character class, such as `[a-z]` or
`[aeiou]` or `[[:alpha:]]`.  See the [go regexp
docs](https://golang.org/pkg/regexp/syntax/) for more info on these.

    h[ae]llo - matches "hello"
             - matches "hallo"
             - doesn't match "hullo"

A `{` and `}` define a choice between elements.  It should contain a
comma seperated list of patterns, any of which might match.  These
patterns can contain wildcards.

    {one,two}_potato - matches "one_potato"
                     - matches "two_potato"
                     - doesn't match "three_potato"
                     - doesn't match "_potato"

Special characters can be escaped with a `\` before them.

    \*.jpg       - matches "*.jpg"
    \\.jpg       - matches "\.jpg"
    \[one\].jpg  - matches "[one].jpg"

Note also that rclone filter globs can only be used in one of the
filter command line flags, not in the specification of the remote, so
`rclone copy "remote:dir*.jpg" /path/to/dir` won't work - what is
required is `rclone --include "*.jpg" copy remote:dir /path/to/dir`

### Directories ###

Rclone keeps track of directories that could match any file patterns.

Eg if you add the include rule

    /a/*.jpg

Rclone will synthesize the directory include rule

    /a/

If you put any rules which end in `/` then it will only match
directories.

Directory matches are **only** used to optimise directory access
patterns - you must still match the files that you want to match.
Directory matches won't optimise anything on bucket based remotes (eg
s3, swift, google compute storage, b2) which don't have a concept of
directory.

### Differences between rsync and rclone patterns ###

Rclone implements bash style `{a,b,c}` glob matching which rsync doesn't.

Rclone always does a wildcard match so `\` must always escape a `\`.

## How the rules are used ##

Rclone maintains a combined list of include rules and exclude rules.

Each file is matched in order, starting from the top, against the rule
in the list until it finds a match.  The file is then included or
excluded according to the rule type.

If the matcher fails to find a match after testing against all the
entries in the list then the path is included.

For example given the following rules, `+` being include, `-` being
exclude,

    - secret*.jpg
    + *.jpg
    + *.png
    + file2.avi
    - *

This would include

  * `file1.jpg`
  * `file3.png`
  * `file2.avi`

This would exclude

  * `secret17.jpg`
  * non `*.jpg` and `*.png`

A similar process is done on directory entries before recursing into
them.  This only works on remotes which have a concept of directory
(Eg local, google drive, onedrive, amazon drive) and not on bucket
based remotes (eg s3, swift, google compute storage, b2).

## Adding filtering rules ##

Filtering rules are added with the following command line flags.

### `--exclude` - Exclude files matching pattern ###

Add a single exclude rule with `--exclude`.

Eg `--exclude *.bak` to exclude all bak files from the sync.

### `--exclude-from` - Read exclude patterns from file ###

Add exclude rules from a file.

Prepare a file like this `exclude-file.txt`

    # a sample exclude rule file
    *.bak
    file2.jpg

Then use as `--exclude-from exclude-file.txt`.  This will sync all
files except those ending in `bak` and `file2.jpg`.

This is useful if you have a lot of rules.

### `--include` - Include files matching pattern ###

Add a single include rule with `--include`.

Eg `--include *.{png,jpg}` to include all `png` and `jpg` files in the
backup and no others.

This adds an implicit `--exclude *` at the very end of the filter
list. This means you can mix `--include` and `--include-from` with the
other filters (eg `--exclude`) but you must include all the files you
want in the include statement.  If this doesn't provide enough
flexibility then you must use `--filter-from`.

### `--include-from` - Read include patterns from file ###

Add include rules from a file.

Prepare a file like this `include-file.txt`

    # a sample include rule file
    *.jpg
    *.png
    file2.avi

Then use as `--include-from include-file.txt`.  This will sync all
`jpg`, `png` files and `file2.avi`.

This is useful if you have a lot of rules.

This adds an implicit `--exclude *` at the very end of the filter
list. This means you can mix `--include` and `--include-from` with the
other filters (eg `--exclude`) but you must include all the files you
want in the include statement.  If this doesn't provide enough
flexibility then you must use `--filter-from`.

### `--filter` - Add a file-filtering rule ###

This can be used to add a single include or exclude rule.  Include
rules start with `+ ` and exclude rules start with `- `.  A special
rule called `!` can be used to clear the existing rules.

Eg `--filter "- *.bak"` to exclude all bak files from the sync.

### `--filter-from` - Read filtering patterns from a file ###

Add include/exclude rules from a file.

Prepare a file like this `filter-file.txt`

    # a sample exclude rule file
    - secret*.jpg
    + *.jpg
    + *.png
    + file2.avi
    # exclude everything else
    - *

Then use as `--filter-from filter-file.txt`.  The rules are processed
in the order that they are defined.

This example will include all `jpg` and `png` files, exclude any files
matching `secret*.jpg` and include `file2.avi`.  Everything else will
be excluded from the sync.

### `--files-from` - Read list of source-file names ###

This reads a list of file names from the file passed in and **only**
these files are transferred.  The filtering rules are ignored
completely if you use this option.

Prepare a file like this `files-from.txt`

    # comment
    file1.jpg
    file2.jpg

Then use as `--files-from files-from.txt`.  This will only transfer
`file1.jpg` and `file2.jpg` providing they exist.

For example, let's say you had a few files you want to back up
regularly with these absolute paths:

    /home/user1/important
    /home/user1/dir/file
    /home/user2/stuff

To copy these you'd find a common subdirectory - in this case `/home`
and put the remaining files in `files-from.txt` with or without
leading `/`, eg

    user1/important
    user1/dir/file
    user2/stuff

You could then copy these to a remote like this

    rclone copy --files-from files-from.txt /home remote:backup

The 3 files will arrive in `remote:backup` with the paths as in the
`files-from.txt`.

You could of course choose `/` as the root too in which case your
`files-from.txt` might look like this.

    /home/user1/important
    /home/user1/dir/file
    /home/user2/stuff

And you would transfer it like this

    rclone copy --files-from files-from.txt / remote:backup

In this case there will be an extra `home` directory on the remote.

### `--min-size` - Don't transfer any file smaller than this ###

This option controls the minimum size file which will be transferred.
This defaults to `kBytes` but a suffix of `k`, `M`, or `G` can be
used.

For example `--min-size 50k` means no files smaller than 50kByte will be
transferred.

### `--max-size` - Don't transfer any file larger than this ###

This option controls the maximum size file which will be transferred.
This defaults to `kBytes` but a suffix of `k`, `M`, or `G` can be
used.

For example `--max-size 1G` means no files larger than 1GByte will be
transferred.

### `--max-age` - Don't transfer any file older than this ###

This option controls the maximum age of files to transfer.  Give in
seconds or with a suffix of:

  * `ms` - Milliseconds
  * `s` - Seconds
  * `m` - Minutes
  * `h` - Hours
  * `d` - Days
  * `w` - Weeks
  * `M` - Months
  * `y` - Years

For example `--max-age 2d` means no files older than 2 days will be
transferred.

### `--min-age` - Don't transfer any file younger than this ###

This option controls the minimum age of files to transfer.  Give in
seconds or with a suffix (see `--max-age` for list of suffixes)

For example `--min-age 2d` means no files younger than 2 days will be
transferred.

### `--delete-excluded` - Delete files on dest excluded from sync ###

**Important** this flag is dangerous - use with `--dry-run` and `-v` first.

When doing `rclone sync` this will delete any files which are excluded
from the sync on the destination.

If for example you did a sync from `A` to `B` without the `--min-size 50k` flag

    rclone sync A: B:

Then you repeated it like this with the `--delete-excluded`

    rclone --min-size 50k --delete-excluded sync A: B:

This would delete all files on `B` which are less than 50 kBytes as
these are now excluded from the sync.

Always test first with `--dry-run` and `-v` before using this flag.

### `--dump-filters` - dump the filters to the output ###

This dumps the defined filters to the output as regular expressions.

Useful for debugging.

## Quoting shell metacharacters ##

The examples above may not work verbatim in your shell as they have
shell metacharacters in them (eg `*`), and may require quoting.

Eg linux, OSX

  * `--include \*.jpg`
  * `--include '*.jpg'`
  * `--include='*.jpg'`

In Windows the expansion is done by the command not the shell so this
should work fine

  * `--include *.jpg`