This is a follow up to Copy folder structure (without files) from one location to another and Rsync how to include directories but not files?, though not a duplicate.
In essence, I want to do the same, i.e.
copy a directory tree from src to dst without copying any files (recursively), except that I also want to skip all hidden folders (recursively).
Adapting this answer by adding --exclude '.*/' did not work as expected:
rsync -av --include '*/' --exclude '.*/' --exclude '*' src/ dst/
as it copies also hidden (dot) directories, .hidden in the following example:
building file list ... done
./
.hidden/
a/
a/.hidden/
I would appreciate an explanation why the attempt does not work as well as a solution to the problem.
From the rsync man-page:
The order of the rules is important because the first rule that matches is the one that takes effect.
So, move the include after the first exclude::
rsync -av --exclude '.*/' --include '*/' --exclude '*' src/ dst/