I've been using rsync in a bash script to make hourly copies of jpeg files that are created every few minutes. The images are contained in a number of subdirectories, with the filenames using the date and time

At the moment, my source and target directories are identical, and rsync is easy:

Note that the source directory is purged at regular intervals to stop it filling up. So the target directory has all the images, but the source doesn't.

I need to change my script so that the target directory has a different structure from the source directory, like this:

Is there any way I can do this with rsync in a bash script?

A few questions:

Do you think that /2010/2010-08/ is technically necessary?
Will the source directories ever have dates that roll over
a "date break" (for want of a better word)? I.e.,

Totally unnecessary. Stupid, even.

I am doing this for a colleague who has already created the directory structure and cannot be persuaded to change it.

What about question 2)? That's more relevant to helping
you with a technical solution.

Sorry.

Yes the source directories will contain images with dates that roll over.

The images are being produced in real-time by cameras that takes one photo every few minutes. The source directory will always contain the last n days of images (n is 30 at the moment). I am trying to use rsync to move these to their permanent storage.

If they roll over months you won't be able to shuffle them
with rsync?

Looks like I'll have to do a Perl script then.

Thanks.