[rdiff-backup-users] What happens if you add a --exclude to an existing rdiff-backup?

[Chris G]

If you delete files/directories from the 'source' of an rdiff-backup
will they get removed from the destination with an appropriate
"--remove-older-than" run?

For example if rdiff-backup has been backing up a hierarchy with a
directory called 'tmp' for a while and then the 'tmp' directory is
removed can one get rdiff-backup to remove the 'tmp' backups 7 days
later by "--remove-older-than 7D".

>From the man page it sounds as if deleted files *will* be removed:-

              Note that snapshots of deleted files are covered by this  opera-
              tion.  Thus if you deleted a file two weeks ago, backed up imme-
              diately afterwards, and then  ran  rdiff-backup  with  --remove-
              older-than  10D  today,  no  trace  of  that  file would remain.
              Finally, file selection options such as --include and  --exclude
              don't affect --remove-older-than.

But this bit from the examples section of the documentation worries me
slightly:- 

    Note that an existing file which hasn't changed for a year will still be
    preserved. But a file which was deleted 15 days ago cannot be restored
    after this command is run.

-- 
Chris Green