Okay so I have looked up the existing answers here and elsewhere but what I can't find out is, if I use the --ignore-existing option along with the --delete option, will this combination I still be able to have rsync delete files from the target if they no longer exist in the source AND still prevent rsync from overwriting existing files in the target?
Thanks
Yes, --delete and --ignore-existing options of rsync will work together.
Here is a test (check the modification times especially):
:~/foo$ ls -l
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Mar 27 14:38 egg.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Mar 27 14:38 ignore.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Mar 27 14:38 spam.txt
:~/bar$ ls -l
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Mar 27 14:40 ignore.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Mar 27 14:40 remove.txt
$ rsync -r --delete --ignore-existing ~/foo/ ~/bar/
:~/bar$ ls -l
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Mar 27 14:42 egg.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Mar 27 14:40 ignore.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Mar 27 14:42 spam.txt
