System backup with rsync: Copy directories without files

Question

Hi guys,
i'm using a single rsync command for backup / copying my system. I skip a lot of directories, because they are big or aren't needed to copy an existing arch installation. I found out, that the content of var/log and var/spool should not deleted entirely, becuase sub directories have to be there with specified permission/ownerships.
This is my current backup-script:
#!/bin/sh
SRC="/nfs"
DST="/mnt"
sudo rsync -aAXv --delete $SRC/* $DST --exclude={/dev/*,/proc/*,/sys/*,/tmp/*,/run/*,/mnt/*,/var/log/*,/media/*,/lost+found,/home/*/.gvfs,/data/,/backup/,/home/*,/root/*,/var/abs/local/yaourtbuild/*,/var/cache/pacman/pkg/*,/scripts/*,/var/spool/cups/*,/var/spool/cups-pdf/*,/var/tmp/*,/etc/ppp/peers/*}
I read the manpage of rsync, but i did not found out, how to copy a directory with all subdirectories, but exlude all files in it.
By the way: i hope the options "aAXv" are perfect - i never had problem with them in the history. But one question: What is when a fileowner does not exists on the target machine, will it mapped to "nobody"? For normal users, this does not matter, becuase i skip the entiere /home dir, but in /etc could some files owned by service-users, that does not exists on the target maschine.
Greetings,
Sebastian

Answer 1

Hello Rexilion,
the tip with find and print0 was greate and works.
The i know about -x option, but it do not work in my case (i don't know why), it will copy all content of /dev (it should not).
In the moment, i'm using this script to copy my arch installation:
#!/bin/sh
SRC="/mnt3"
DST="/mnt"
cd $SRC # important for relative find command
sudo rsync -aAXvz --delete $SRC/* $DST --exclude={/dev/*,/proc/*,/sys/*,/tmp/*,/run/*,/mnt/*,/media/*,/var/log/*,/lost+found,/home/*/.gvfs,/data/,/backup/,/home/*,/root/*,/var/abs/local/yaourtbuild/*,/var/cache/pacman/pkg/*,/scripts/*,/var/spool/*,/var/tmp/*,/etc/ppp/peers/*} --progress
find var/log -type d -print0 | rsync -av --files-from=- --from0 $SRC $DST
find var/spool -type d -print0 | rsync -av --files-from=- --from0 $SRC $DST
Are there more directories, that could contain sensitive data, that should not copied to another computer (for example, when my arch installation should copied to a "foreign" computer)?
/etc/passwd should not be a problem, the passowrds are hashed. And in /etc/ssh, i have no important private keys - ok, maybe i'm wrong, maybe i should regenerate them via "ssh-keygen -A"
Any other ideas, what should be keeped in mind, when copy an existing arch installation to another "foreign" machine?