Backup Exclusion Issue: Specific Directories root drive

Support
1

I’m having an issue with setting up exclusions in my backup configuration and would appreciate any assistance. My root directory for the backup is located at D:\
I want to exclude everything from the backup except for the following directories and their subdirectories:

D:\Backup\OLD
D:\Sys\Docs
D:\Data\bd

There are multiple files and folders at the root of D:\, as well as within subdirectories, that I want to exclude. For example, I want to exclude files like D:\Backup\list.txt and folders like D:\Sys\Docs_old.

I attempted to configure the exclusions as follows:

*
!**/Backup/OLD/**
!**/Sys/Docs/**
!**/Data/bd/**

However, this doesn’t seem to be working as intended. Does anyone have a solution or suggestion for correctly setting up these exclusions? Thank you in advance for your help.

2

Something like this should work:

/*
!/Backup/
/Backup/*
!/Backup/OLD
/Sys/*
!/Sys/Docs
/Data/*
!/Data/bd
3

Hello and thank you for the example.
I have a problem when i apply your method:

My root is on a network :
\192.168.1.10\c$

and so I apply the pattern :
but it doesn’t work, I just have the Pictures folder and subfolder.
I should normally have his file and sub-file: Desktop, Documents, Pictures and Gest Station CA

/*
!/Users/
/Users/*
!/Users/stationcast

!/Users/stationcast/
/Users/stationcast/*
!/Users/stationcast/Desktop

!/Users/stationcast/
/Users/stationcast/*
!/Users/stationcast/Documents

!/Users/stationcast/
/Users/stationcast/*
!/Users/stationcast/Pictures

!/ProgramData/
/ProgramData/*
!/ProgramData/Gest Station CA

I have the authorizations, because I access them via the explorer.
Thank you for your help.

4

IMO exclude model used by kopia is not very user friendly if you want to include only specific items.

If you struggle with these rules, given that you have only 4 folders to backup simply create separate snapshots for Desktop, Documents, Pictures and Gest Station CA

you can always snapshot them all later in one go by running:

kopia snapshot create --all

5

FYI - this is how I ended up using it as “include” rules wizardry drove me mad.

I wish somebody creates --include flag one day

6

Have had a moment now and made exclusion rules to work.

Source:

$ tree .
.
├── A
│   ├── AA
│   │   └── testAA.txt
│   ├── AB
│   │   ├── ABA
│   │   │   └── testABA.txt
│   │   ├── ABB
│   │   │   └── testABB.txt
│   │   ├── ABC
│   │   │   └── testABC.txt
│   │   └── testAB.txt
│   ├── AC
│   │   └── testAC.txt
│   ├── AD
│   │   ├── ADA
│   │   │   └── testADA.txt
│   │   └── testAD.txt
│   └── testA.txt
├── B
│   └── testB.txt
├── C
│   └── testC.txt
├── D
│   ├── DA
│   │   └── testDA.txt
│   ├── DB
│   │   └── testDB.txt
│   ├── DC
│   │   └── testDC.txt
│   └── testD.txt
└── test.txt

To include only below directories (and exclude anything else):

/A/AB/ABB
/A/AB/ABC
/D/DC

this exclusion rules work:

/*
!/A
/A/*
!/A/AB
/A/AB/*
!/A/AB/ABB
!/A/AB/ABC

!/D
/D/*
!/D/DC

I have tested and it works as intended.

$ kopia ls -l kea16302460cffae2e339c05122feede5
drwxr-xr-x            0 2023-11-14 18:44:03 GMT k5e96c2e68004633da2a39ea19d7a6bb6  A/
drwxr-xr-x            7 2023-11-14 18:29:49 GMT kf82a77068c7625d4cda87b4be52b4aba  D/

$ kopia ls -l kea16302460cffae2e339c05122feede5/A
drwxr-xr-x            0 2023-11-14 18:44:03 GMT kbd1de7df14378fe99d90bce8b9517cb4  AB/

$ kopia  ls -l kea16302460cffae2e339c05122feede5/A/AB
drwxr-xr-x            0 2023-11-14 18:20:48 GMT k5773e11290dd5606f3361c03b7d9f7ae  ABB/
drwxr-xr-x            0 2023-11-14 18:20:48 GMT kd2fc526858045a45c6c489a3ff1cc4b6  ABC/

$ kopia  ls -l kea16302460cffae2e339c05122feede5/A/AB/ABB
-rw-r--r--            0 2023-11-14 18:20:48 GMT 1a90f48029f40abc714853d2e82742d9   testABB.txt

$ kopia ls -l kea16302460cffae2e339c05122feede5/A/AB/ABC
-rw-r--r--            0 2023-11-14 18:20:48 GMT 1a90f48029f40abc714853d2e82742d9   testABC.txt

$ kopia ls -l kea16302460cffae2e339c05122feede5/D
drwxr-xr-x            7 2023-11-08 15:17:32 GMT k06cbd9dea4c9ab77b0b829b9d92d6139  DC/

$ kopia ls -l kea16302460cffae2e339c05122feede5/D/DC
-rw-r--r--            7 2023-11-08 15:17:32 GMT ae8906c1c3f5b7db37b682ea7cfc80ff   testDC.txt
7

thank you, it’s fantastic, I’ll be able to save my files :slight_smile:

1 Like
8

@kapitainsky, thanks for that. However, it seems some of your code is superfluous? I boiled it down to this:

AppData/Local/*
!AppData/Local/darktable
!AppData/Local/KeePassXC

That excludes /AppData/Local by default with the specified exceptions.

9

Definitely not saying that my code is the most optimal.

But given this dirs structure:

$ tree .
.
├── A
│   ├── AA
│   │   └── testAA.txt
│   ├── AB
│   │   ├── ABA
│   │   │   └── testABA.txt
│   │   ├── ABB
│   │   │   └── testABB.txt
│   │   ├── ABC
│   │   │   └── testABC.txt
│   │   └── testAB.txt
│   ├── AC
│   │   └── testAC.txt
│   ├── AD
│   │   ├── ADA
│   │   │   └── testADA.txt
│   │   └── testAD.txt
│   └── testA.txt
├── B
│   └── testB.txt
├── C
│   └── testC.txt
├── D
│   ├── DA
│   │   └── testDA.txt
│   ├── DB
│   │   └── testDB.txt
│   ├── DC
│   │   └── testDC.txt
│   └── testD.txt
└── test.txt

How your shortened version would look like to only backup:

/A/AB/ABB
/A/AB/ABC
/D/DC
10

Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification.