How to exclude all dotfiles in a folder but include a specific set?

[Tobias Leupold]

Dear list,

I use rdiff-backup to do automated backups on my server. I backup /, but I 
exclude everything and only include what I need. E.g. I use the following call

    rdiff-backup --include-globbing-filelist /etc/backup.include \
                 --exclude / \
                 / /backup/data

and specify a list of folders I want in /etc/backup.include, e.g.

    /etc/crontab
    /etc/postfix
    /etc/dovecot
    /usr/local/bin
    /usr/local/sbin
    /srv

That works just fine.

Now I'm trying to adapt this to a machine with similar requirements, but 
including some parts of a home directory.

What I can't get to work is: I want to include the home directory, but without 
all the .whatever files. But I want SOME of them.

E.g. I want:

    /etc/some/config_file
    /etc/some/other/config_file

And also all the "normal" files and folders in /home/my_user

    /home/my_user/folder_1
    /home/my_user/folder_2
    /home/my_user/foo
    /home/my_user/bar

and so on, but I don't want

    /home/my_user/.*

but I DO want a defined set of dotfiles, e.g.

    /home/my_user/.ssh
    /home/my_user/.local/share/foo

I can't get this to work. I played around a lot with --include-globbing-
filelist, --exclude-globbing-filelist, --include and --exclude, but either, I 
get none of the .whatever files inside /home/my_user, or I get all of them.

Is it possible to do this? Thanks in advance for all help!

Cheers, Tobias