diff --git a/fdroidserver/deploy.py b/fdroidserver/deploy.py
index c1990b93..5b2327f3 100644
--- a/fdroidserver/deploy.py
+++ b/fdroidserver/deploy.py
@@ -502,7 +502,7 @@ def update_serverwebroot(serverwebroot, repo_section):
     url = serverwebroot['url']
     logging.info('rsyncing ' + repo_section + ' to ' + url)
     if options.index_only:
-        if subprocess.call(rsyncargs + ['--excludes', "*"] + _get_index_includes(repo_section) + [repo_section, url]) != 0:
+        if subprocess.call(rsyncargs + ['--exclude', "*"] + _get_index_includes(repo_section) + [repo_section, url]) != 0:
             raise FDroidException()
     else:
         excludes = _get_index_excludes(repo_section)