rsync : how to exclude specific files or folders ?

[Vincent Trouilliez]

Hello,

I am using rsync currently, to backup my home directory every evening.
I would like to exclude a few large folders so as to speed up the backup
by an order (or two) of magnitude.

The problem is that although it should be simple.. it isn't.
I read the man page several times, and it's not very clear what the
syntax is, nor if individual folders to be exluced can be specified
directly at the command line, or if they need to be specified in a
separate "black list" file, and what the syntax in this file should be
like.

So does anyone know (for sure, from past or present
experience) how to word it so rsync understands ?

To be specific, I am trying to exlude my virtual machines (15GB) and
googlearth database (1.1GB) :

/home/vincent/.VirtualBox
/home/vincent/.googleearth


Regards,

--
Vince