I want to use rsync to backup a machine (we'll call it escher) to my fileserver. I'd like to use ssh as the transport. I really don't need to in this situation, but I'd like to just to learn how. I've got ssh behaving like I would like (i.e., can connect from the fileserver to escher using a DSA key file without supplying a password). I need to initiate the connection from the fileserver as there is a firewall between the two boxes that prevents escher from initiating a connection to the fileserver. I could change this with some ipf rule changes, but I'd rather not. What I'm getting hung up on is the significance of the slashes for rsync, and the --exclude syntax. My goal is to backup the entire escher machine to the fileserver, with the exception of any .journal files, the /tmp directory, and the /proc directory. I think that I can run this command from the fileserver and do what I want: rsync -e ssh -avz --exclude '.journal /tmp /proc' --delete escher:/. \ /backup/escher/monday It's this part of the rsync man page that I'm finding confusing: " rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp a trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the machine foo into the /data/tmp/. A trailing / on a source name means "copy the contents of this directory". Without a trailing slash it means "copy the directory". This difference becomes particularly important when using the --delete option." If I understand this correctly, if I just use 'escher:/' as the source then I'll get the files in the root of the system, but it won't be recursive. Based on that I'm guessing that I either need to use 'escher:/.' or 'escher:.' to rsync the entire system. Also, I'm not clear on the --exclude syntax. The man pages don't provide an example for excluding multiple files, or directories at all for that matter. If the exclude statement that I've got above won't work, could I use something like: --exclude '.journal' --exclude '/tmp' --exclude '/proc' Thanks for any help, Jeff