Nice simple list and explanation of simple commands
http://www.evbackup.com/support-commonly-used-rsync-arguments/
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rsync -aP –exclude=’some_pattern’ dir1/ dir2
This will use the archive command which means it syncs recursively and preserves symbolic links, special and device files, modification times, group, owner, and permissions.
The -P provides a progress bar and allows for resuming interrupted transfers. Same as –progress and –partial.
Not the trailing slash after the first directory. This means “the contents of this directory”.
dir2 must already exist, note that in this case there is no trailing slash.