Rsync Multiple Examples to Exclude Files and Directories Using exclude-from

1. Exclude one directory

$ rsync -avz --exclude 'dir1' source/ destination/


2. Exclude multiple directories using pattern

$ rsync -avz --exclude 'dir*' source/ destination/


3. Exclude one file

$ rsync -avz --exclude 'dir1/dir2/file3.txt' source/ destination/


4. Exclude certain file types

$ rsync -avz --exclude '*.txt' source/ destination/


5. Exclude multiple files and folders at the same time

$ rsync -avz --exclude file1.txt --exclude dir3/file4.txt source/ destination/

or,

$ rsync -avz --exclude-from 'exclude-list.txt' source/ destination/

where: exclude-list.txt contains excluded files and folder names

e.g.
excluded-file.txt
excluded/directory/
var/log/
media/catalog/product/cache/