On Mon, Jun 09, 2003 at 08:25:10PM -0400, Rosenblatt, Scott wrote:
> Hello,
> I am attempting to exclude all files *.a *.o *.so that are located in 
> directories without the name bit or bitkeeper when streaming the backups to a 
> holding disk prior to sending them to tape. 


An extremely non-trivial requirement.
Here is a totally untested approach.

        ./*/?/*.[ao]                    # single char dir names
        ./*/?/*.so
        ./*/??/*.[ao]                   # two char dir names
        ./*/??/*.so
        ./*/.*/*.[ao]                   # dot dirs
        ./*/.*/*.so
        ./*/[!b][!i][!t]*/*.[ao]        # three or more char dir names
        ./*/[!b][!i][!t]*/*.so          # not starting with "bit"

And it would not cover files named dot-something-dot-a.
And it would pass things in a directory named "bitwise" even though they
should be excluded according to your spec.

> I have heard from others that the exclusion functionality is a bit broken.


I haven't.
What did these others say was broken?
Did they report it here so it may get fixed?

-- 
Jon H. LaBadie                  jon AT jgcomp DOT com
 JG Computing
 4455 Province Line Road        (609) 252-0159
 Princeton, NJ  08540-4322      (609) 683-7220 (fax)