Re: [BackupPC-users] Exclude all cache folders in Unix

Hi,

Jose Miranda wrote on 2015-01-04 21:55:01 -0400 [[BackupPC-users] Exclude all 
cache folders in Unix]:
> I'm trying to exclude all cache folders in the whole server. I'm backing up
> root and I want to exclude anything containing "cache", such as:
> 
> /home/admin/.../.../cache/.../...
> /home/admin/.../cache/.../
> /.../.../cache/.../...
> 
> What should I use as filter in BackupFileExclude in the web interface?
> 
> I tried the following and it didn't work:
> 
> /*/cache/*/
> */*cache*

as always, that really depends on the XferMethod, but I'd expect a simple

cache

to work. For rsync(d), there's also

/**/cache

(with no apparent advantage over just "cache"). You could also limit that to
only *directories* named "cache":

cache/

(not sure if that works for tar et al.).

When using the web interface, make sure you get the entry right. You need a
share name to which the exclude applies and one or more patterns to exclude
(not sure what it looks like exactly, I don't use the web interface).

That said, I hope you have no source code repositories with caching mechanisms
implemented in subdirectories named "cache". Relying solely on the name of a
directory for an exclude might not be a good idea. I tend to prefer gathering
a list of cache directories actually used, so I don't end up excluding
something I didn't intend to, because someone named it in a way I didn't
anticipate. This might take some work and will tend to require occasionally
adding new cache directories to the list. It really depends on what is worse
for you: missing files in your backup or having extraneous cache directories
ending up in your backup (which *can* make the whole backup fail). Just
remember that you likely won't notice files being missed, while you will
notice failing backups. Hopefully :-).

Regards,
Holger

P.S.: I can't see anything wrong with using excludes like
      /home/*/.mozilla/firefox/*/Cache
      (also note that not all cache directories are named "cache" ;-).

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