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84th chunk of `rsync.man`
faf15c3ff5a773652bdd1392c46687e341438ae2349c578c000000010000101e
 affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
       changing how much of the file tree  is  duplicated  on  the  destination
       host).  The following examples demonstrate this.

       Let’s  say  that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
       path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of  "/home/you/bar/baz".
       Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2‐source transfer:

           Example cmd: rsync ‐a /home/me /home/you /dest
           +/‐ pattern: /me/foo/bar
           +/‐ pattern: /you/bar/baz
           Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
           Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz

           Example cmd: rsync ‐a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
           +/‐ pattern: /foo/bar               (note missing "me")
           +/‐ pattern: /bar/baz               (note missing "you")
           Target file: /dest/foo/bar
           Target file: /dest/bar/baz

           Example cmd: rsync ‐a ‐‐relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
           +/‐ pattern: /home/me/foo/bar       (note full path)
           +/‐ pattern: /home/you/bar/baz      (ditto)
           Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
           Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz

           Example cmd: cd /home; rsync ‐a ‐‐relative me/foo you/ /dest
           +/‐ pattern: /me/foo/bar      (starts at specified path)
           +/‐ pattern: /you/bar/baz     (ditto)
           Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
           Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz

       The  easiest  way  to see what name you should filter is to just look at
       the output when using --verbose and put a / in front of  the  name  (use
       the --dry‐run option if you’re not yet ready to copy any files).

   PER‐DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
       Without  a  delete  option, per‐directory rules are only relevant on the
       sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves
       without affecting the transfer.  To make this  easy,  the  ’e’  modifier
       adds this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:

           rsync ‐av ‐‐filter=’: .excl’ ‐‐exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest
           rsync ‐av ‐‐filter=’:e .excl’ host:src/dir /dest

       However,  if  you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want
       some files to be excluded from being deleted, you’ll  need  to  be  sure
       that the receiving side knows what files to exclude.  The easiest way is
       to  include  the  per‐directory  merge  files  in  the  transfer and use
       --delete‐after, because this ensures that the receiving  side  gets  all
       the  same  exclude  rules  as the sending side before it tries to delete
       anything:

           rsync ‐avF ‐‐delete‐after host:src/dir /dest

       However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you’ll  need
       to  either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the com‐
       mand line), or you’ll need to  maintain  your  own  per‐directory  merge
       files  on  the  receiving side.  An example of the first is this (assume
       that the remote .rules files exclude themselves):

           rsync ‐av ‐‐filter=’: .rules’ ‐‐filter=’. /my/extra.rules’
              ‐‐delete host:src/dir /dest

       In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides  of  the
       transfer,  but  (on  the  sending side) the rules are subservient to the
       rules merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
       per‐directory merge rule.

       In one final example, the remote side  is  excluding  the  .rsync‐filter
       files  from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync‐filter files
       to control what gets deleted on the receiving side.  To do this we  must
       specifically  exclude  the per‐directory merge files (so that they don’t
       get deleted) and then put rules into the local  files  to  control  what
       else should not get deleted.  Like one of these commands:
Title: Rsync Filtering Examples and Per-Directory Rules with Delete
Summary
The text provides examples that demonstrate how the --relative option and directory structure affect the paths used in rsync filter patterns. It emphasizes using verbose output to identify the correct paths for filtering. Additionally, it discusses the interaction of per-directory rules with the --delete option, explaining how to ensure that the receiving side has the correct exclude rules before deleting files. The 'e' modifier for excluding merge files is introduced, along with strategies for using global exclude rules or maintaining per-directory merge files on the receiving side.