A Worked Example

One tree through its whole life, with the real output at each step. The tree is a small studio folder — raw photos, exports, notes, and a scratch directory — being mirrored to studio-mirror/.

Step 1: the first sync

$ rsync -av --itemize-changes studio/ studio-mirror/
sending incremental file list
created directory studio-mirror
cd+++++++++ ./
>f+++++++++ notes.txt
cd+++++++++ exports/
>f+++++++++ exports/contact.txt
>f+++++++++ exports/img01-web.jpg
cd+++++++++ raw/
>f+++++++++ raw/img01.jpg
>f+++++++++ raw/img02.jpg
>f+++++++++ raw/img03.jpg
cd+++++++++ scratch/
>f+++++++++ scratch/edit-state.tmp
>f+++++++++ scratch/preview.cache

sent 210,796 bytes  received 227 bytes  422,046.00 bytes/sec
total size is 210,082  speedup is 1.00

Every line carries the +++++++++ of a new item; directories introduce themselves as cd (created directory). Sent ≈ total size: a first sync is a copy, as it must be.

Step 2: life happens, then a rehearsed mirror

The notes are edited, a fourth photo arrives, and the contact sheet is deleted from the source. The mirror command — rehearsed first, per the deleting chapter's rule:

$ rsync -av --delete --dry-run --itemize-changes studio/ studio-mirror/
sending incremental file list
>f.st...... notes.txt
*deleting   exports/contact.txt
.d..t...... exports/
.d..t...... raw/
>f+++++++++ raw/img04.jpg
...
total size is 270,075  speedup is 641.51 (DRY RUN)

Five lines, all expected: one edit (size and time), one deletion, one arrival, and two directory lines noting their times changed because their contents did. The real run that followed printed the same five lines and a live footer — the rehearsal told the truth:

sent 60,496 bytes  received 101 bytes  121,194.00 bytes/sec
total size is 270,075  speedup is 4.46

270 KB of tree, 60 KB moved — the new photo — and the rest was comparison.

Step 3: the scratch directory retires

Scratch files shouldn't be mirrored at all. Add the exclude and re-run the mirror:

$ rsync -av --delete --itemize-changes --exclude='scratch/' studio/ studio-mirror/
sending incremental file list

$ ls studio-mirror/scratch/   (still there)
edit-state.tmp
preview.cache

Two lessons in one empty listing. First, the exclude works: nothing in scratch/ is considered any more. Second — the classic surprise — the already-mirrored scratch files survived --delete. Excluded files are protected from deletion, precisely so that adding an exclude can't wipe a destination by accident. Removing them is a separate, deliberate act:

$ rsync -av --delete --delete-excluded --itemize-changes --exclude='scratch/' studio/ studio-mirror/
sending incremental file list
*deleting   scratch/preview.cache
*deleting   scratch/edit-state.tmp
*deleting   scratch/

$ ls studio-mirror/
exports  notes.txt  raw

--delete-excluded lifts the protection for exactly the excluded things. Treat it like --delete itself: dry-run it first.

Step 4: freeze it as a snapshot

The mirror is current; now make it history. The snapshot script from examples/ (next chapter explains the machinery):

$ ./snapshot.sh studio studio-backups
snapshot: /home/.../studio-backups/2026-10-17_235623

The studio now has both a mirror (kept current by steps like 2–3) and a frozen snapshot (kept forever by doing nothing). That pairing — one tree that tracks the present, snapshots that keep the past — is the whole backup pattern of the next chapter, and it is built from nothing but the commands in this one.