Rsync excluding everything except 1 directory tree

Question

I have a directory structure with a variable number of subdirectories and files. I would like to exclude everything EXCEPT 1 subdirectory tree.

I have tried

rsync -a --include 'wanted_dir' --exclude '*' 1/ 2/

but it gives me just the wanted_dir directory (none of the files under it).

Answer 1

To include all files within your directory, add the triple stars :

rsync -a --include 'wanted_dir/***' --exclude '*' 1/ 2/