1. Initial source folder structure:
me@MacBook:~/tmp$ find source source source/.DS_Store source/a source/b source/dev source/dev/.DS_Store source/dev/x source/dev/y.orig.vhd source/dev/y.vhd
2. Lets backup source folder to destination folder using rsync
me@MacBook:~/tmp$ rsync -abvP --backup-dir=backup_`date +%Y-%m-%d--%H-%M-%S` --include=*.orig.vhd --exclude={/backup_*,.DS_Store,*.vhd} --delete source/ destination/
building file list ...
6 files to consider
created directory destination
./
a
1 100% 0.00kB/s 0:00:00 (xfer#1, to-check=4/6)
b
1 100% 0.98kB/s 0:00:00 (xfer#2, to-check=3/6)
dev/
dev/x
1 100% 0.98kB/s 0:00:00 (xfer#3, to-check=1/6)
dev/y.orig.vhd
1 100% 0.98kB/s 0:00:00 (xfer#4, to-check=0/6)
sent 343 bytes received 120 bytes 926.00 bytes/sec
total size is 4 speedup is 0.01
explanation:
--include=*.orig.vhd
do not exclude files *.orig.vhd for any source (sub)directories (since include is before exclude then inclusion will first match rather then exclusion from *.vhd)
--exclude={/backup_*,.DS_Store,*.vhd}
copy all files excluding ~/tmp/backup_* files, excluding all .DS_Store and *.vhd files in any (sub)directories
3. The destination directory content:
me@MacBook:~/tmp$ find destination destination destination/a destination/b destination/dev destination/dev/x destination/dev/y.orig.vhd
4. Lets modify one file and delete another and then run the same rsync command:
me@MacBook:~/tmp$ echo "2" > source/a
me@MacBook:~/tmp$ rm source/dev/x
me@MacBook:~/tmp$ rsync -abvP --backup-dir=backup_`date +%Y-%m-%d--%H-%M-%S` --include=*.orig.vhd --exclude={/backup_*,.DS_Store,*.vhd} --delete source/ destination/
building file list ...
5 files to consider
deleting dev/x
./
a
2 100% 0.00kB/s 0:00:00 (xfer#1, to-check=3/5)
dev/
sent 195 bytes received 54 bytes 498.00 bytes/sec
total size is 4 speedup is 0.02
--backup-dir=backup_`date +%Y-%m-%d--%H-%M-%S`
creates a backup folder in destination dir with previous versions of modified or deleted files
--delete
deletes the file in destination folder if they were deleted in the source dir
5. Then the destination folder will contain backup_2016-10-29–12-26-06 with previous version of a and dev/x before deletion:
me@MacBook:~/tmp$ find destination destination destination/a destination/b destination/backup_2016-10-29--12-26-06 destination/backup_2016-10-29--12-26-06/a destination/backup_2016-10-29--12-26-06/dev destination/backup_2016-10-29--12-26-06/dev/x destination/dev destination/dev/y.orig.vhd
Bartosz Wieczorek's blog 