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as someone who works on 3 different machines regularly and likes to have the same environment on all of them... i would LOVE if applications would stop cluttering my .config with cache data and other bullshit i keep having to exclude from sync.

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`rsync` should have something like `.nosync` akin to `.nomedia`, and the directory should be added explicitly if one wants it to be synced. Or something like a `--profile` option where `.nosync` then can contain an allow/disallow filter for profiles.

I have the same issue with the scripts which trigger `rsync` getting confusingly complex because of all the include/exclude arguments.

That's generally what the Cache Directory Specification attempts to cover: https://bford.info/cachedir/

Lots of things like the Rust tool chain now create the CACHEDIR.TAG files so that backup tools can ignore that part of the hierarchy. Alas, I believe the rsync folks refuse to implement it.

I've been using a .rsync-filter file for something like what you mean for ages for my homedirs backups. It's a bit tricky probably to make it right the first time but once it's there it just works.

https://manpages.debian.org/bookworm/rsync/rsync.1.en.html#f...

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