Replace all files except one with rsync

Question

I'm currently using rsync as follows

rsync -az --delete ...

What option can I use with rsync to replace all destination files that already exist except for one specific file that should not be replaced if already exists? Sure, if the file doesn't exist at the destination, it should be put there.

Answer 1

I don't think you can do this with rsync filters. So I would exclude that file and run rsync a second time.

err=0
rsync -az --delete --exclude=/path/to/first-time.only source/ destination/ || err=1
rsync -az --ignore-existing --include=/path/to/first-time.only --exclude='*' source/ destination/ || err=1
return $err

Answer 2

cp -P /location/specificfile /user/yourname/elsewhere
rsync with your options
cp -force /user/yourname/elsewhere /location/specificfile