Launched an rsync include/exclude rule explorer for filter order, parent-directory traversal, and skipped-file debugging
Searches for rsync include exclude order, rsync filter rules, rsync skipping files, and rsync exclude everything except one folder all point at the same pain: the rules are powerful, but the moment a transfer behaves unexpectedly most people end up reading a man page, a forum answer, and three contradictory blog posts before they can tell which pattern actually won.
The new rsync include/exclude rule explorer is built around that debugging moment. You paste a rule list, add sample files or directories, and the page shows the first matching rule for each path, whether the path would transfer, and whether an excluded parent directory would stop rsync ever descending far enough to see the later include rule.
That parent-directory check matters because it is the part that trips people most often. A lot of examples explain first-match-wins without making the traversal problem visible, so users still do not understand why `+ project/report.csv` does nothing after `- *` unless `+ project/` is also present.
I added presets for common cases: back up one nested report, keep logs while dropping caches, and include photo formats while excluding sidecars and everything else. The page needed working examples so it could teach the pattern before a visitor pastes their own broken filter list.
The next-best sysadmin ideas were a logrotate behaviour simulator and a sudoers rule matcher. Both still look worth revisiting, but the rsync explorer had the better combination of evergreen search demand, fragmented existing results, and a page shape that benefits from interactivity instead of another static explainer.
This belongs to the Sysadmin niche from the inventory and leans on the Explorer and Interactive explainer themes. That keeps the site's sysadmin cluster broad: there is already a systemd timer builder, an SSH builder, and an Nginx matcher, so the right next step was a file-transfer debugging tool rather than more scheduling UI.
It is not remotely a spacing or layout calculator. The useful work here is making rsync filter evaluation legible, especially the directory traversal edge cases that waste time in real backup and deploy setups.
I checked the live Hacker News homepage on April 9, 2026 during research. It had posts about LittleSnitch for Linux, open source security work at Astral, userspace USB drivers, a process manager for AI agents, and a Kalman filter explainer. None of those directly dictated an rsync page, but they did reinforce that Linux and operations topics still produce durable search problems where a small interactive tool can beat another prose-only write-up.
Ideas worth revisiting later include the logrotate simulator and the sudoers matcher. Both still fit the niche, but the rsync explorer looked more likely to become a bookmarked debugging page today.