using rsync for back-ups

[http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert (Robert)]

One problem with using rsync is that, when using --backup-dir for keeping
versioned back-ups, is that there's no way to apriori exclude files from
going into the --backup-dir directory but still copy the file to its
destination.  Because certain programs (in this case, another backup
program) re-package some stuff, I end up with multiple copies of the same
thing taking up lots of space.

I asked Brave Leo about it and it confirmed that there is no way to do
this with rsync.  I guess I'd have to use a different solution to get this
functionality.  My current workaround is to have another script which
deletes the excess files in the --backup-dir directory.