http://rsync.samba.org/resources.html

cat exclude.lst
- /home/system/sophos
- /home/system/sophos/**
- /home/system/software
- /home/system/software/**
- /home/system/ghost_images
- /home/system/ghost_images/**
- /home/system/tmp
- /home/system/tmp/**
- /home/tob
- /home/tob/**

cat include.lst
+ /
+ /etc
+ /etc/**
+ /home
+ /home/**

rsync --numeric-ids --delete --include-from="include.lst" --exclude-from="exclude.lst" -n -ave  "ssh -i /usr/local/etc/backupmaster/openssh/id_rsa -o StrictHostkeyChecking=no" /home admin@backupmaster:/home/system/rsync_localstorage

above line will 'dryrun' because of the -n parameter. Piping to less will provide a view on the builded filelist especially when -vv is also added as a parameter
Problem: /home/system/software will still be part of the filelist