Syncing a single file and keeping N levels of folder structure

Question

I have the following structure:

/Users
  /build
    /.jenkins
      /jobs
         /Job1
           config.xml
           someotherfiles.blah
         /Job2
           config.xml
           someotherfiles.blah
         /JobN
           config.xml
           someotherfiles.blah

I want to backup only the config.xml file to another folder keeping the folder structure the same in the new folder, but pruning away /User/build/.jenkins/jobs

My new folder would look like this:

backup/
  /Job1
    config.xml
  /Job2
    config.xml
  /JobN
    config.xml

Is this possible to do using rsync?

Edit: had accidentally included the someotherfiles.blah in the output, I actually don't want those. All I want is the config.xml file along with the folder structure 1 level up.

Answer 1

This should work:

rsync -r --include=Job* --include=config.xml --exclude=* /full/path/to/Users/build/.jenkins/ backup

The full path is not copied to the backup directory unless you pass the -R option to rsync. If you include Job* and config.xml and then exclude * (order is important, because the first match to an include or exclude rule determines what gets copied), you end up with the structure you want. If having the explicit Job* pattern is too restrictive, the manual says you should be able to use the */ pattern:

One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy to be included by using a single rule: "+ */" (put it somewhere before the "- *" rule)

See the whole INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES section of the manual page for more details.