rsync - create all missing parent directories?

I'm looking for an `rsync`-like program which will create any missing parent directories on the remote side. For example, if I have `/top/a/b/c/d` on one server and only `/top/a` exists on the remote server, I want to copy `d` to the remote server and have the `b` and `c` directories created as well. The command: ``` rsync /top/a/b/c/d remote:/top/a/b/c ``` won't work because `/tmp/a/b` doesn't exist on the remote server. And if it did exist then the file `d` would get copied to the path `/top/a/b/c`. This is possible to do with `rsync` using `--include` and `--exclude` switches, but it is very involved, e.g.: ``` rsync -v -r a dest:dir \ --include 'a/b' \ --include 'a/b/c' \ --include 'a/b/c/d' \ --include 'a/b/c/d/e' \ --exclude 'a/*' \ --exclude 'a/b/*' \ --exclude 'a/b/c/*' \ --exclude 'a/b/c/d/*' ``` will only copy `a/b/c/d/e` to `dest:dir/a/b/c/d/e` even if the intermediate directories have files. (Note - the includes must precede the excludes.) Are there any other options?