rsync include rules refuse to work - include

Question

I have researched this pretty thoroughly. Everything that supposedly "works" doesn't for my case, so I thought I would ask here.
I have a directory tree that looks like:
root/
CK1E/
3DConformers/
OtherStuff/
PDE4B/
3DConformers/
OtherStuff/
...
I am trying to use an rsync command to retrieve the "3DConformers" subdirectories from each of these projects.
I am issuing a command of the form:
rsync -avz user#host:/path/to/root/ . --exclude "*" --include-from rules -v -v
I couldn't get general rules to work so I decided to use specific ones, focusing on the "CK1E" subdirectory. I read conflicting reports as to whether leading or trailing slashes were desired/required by rsync, so I took the shotgun approach. My current rules file looks like this:
/CK1E
/CK1E/
/CK1E/3DConformers
/CK1E/3DConformers/
/CK1E/3DConformers/*
CK1E
CK1E/
CK1E/3DConformers
CK1E/3DConformers/
CK1E/3DConformers/*
I get the following output from rsync. Note that the "CK1E" directory is still getting ignored!
receiving incremental file list
[sender] add_rule(- *)
[sender] add_rule(+ /CK1E)
[sender] add_rule(+ /CK1E/)
[sender] add_rule(+ /CK1E/3DConformers)
[sender] add_rule(+ /CK1E/3DConformers/)
[sender] add_rule(+ /CK1E/3DConformers/*)
[sender] add_rule(+ CK1E)
[sender] add_rule(+ CK1E/)
[sender] add_rule(+ CK1E/3DConformers)
[sender] add_rule(+ CK1E/3DConformers/)
[sender] add_rule(+ CK1E/3DConformers/*)
server_sender starting pid=2451269
[sender] make_file(.,*,0)
recv_file_name(.)
...
[sender] hiding directory CK1E because of pattern *
...
received 1 names
recv_file_list done
send_file_list done
get_local_name count=1 .
generator starting pid=27883
delta-transmission enabled
recv_generator(.,0)
recv_generator(.,1)
generate_files phase=1
recv_files(1) starting
send_files starting
send_files(0, /path/to/root/.)
recv_files(.)
send_files phase=1
recv_files phase=1
generate_files phase=2
send_files phase=2
recv_files phase=2
send files finished
total: matches=0 hash_hits=0 false_alarms=0 data=0
recv_files finished
generate_files phase=3
generate_files finished
sent 212 bytes received 1578 bytes 275.38 bytes/sec
total size is 0 speedup is 0.00
_exit_cleanup(code=0, file=main.c, line=1505): about to call exit(0)
Help?!

Answer 1

The ordering of include/exclude rules is important: the first include/exclude rule that matches the file is the one that matters.
Your first rule is --exclude="*", so you're excluding everything. You need to reorder your rules so that your include rule matches before your catch-all exclude rule.
This command should work:
rsync -avz user#host:/path/to/root/ . \
--include "/CK1E/" \
--include "/CK1E/3DConformers/" \
--include "/CK1E/3DConformers/*" \
--exclude "*"
You need to add the intermediate directories, as well as the files, because, if you don't mention them explicitly, the catch-all exclude rule will match them, and if the direct is excluded then so are the contents.
(The \ are not part of the command; they just indicate line continuation; your shell will do the right thing when you cut-and-paste.)