Backup Central

Am I the only one who finds the include/exclude options a little
confusing?

Why is the behaviour between --include/exclude so much different from
--include/exclude-filelist?

The following command worked great:

rdiff-backup --include /root --include /var/log --exclude '**' /
mobius::/var/rsync/backup/spacebox

but as soon as I try and specify all that stuff in files, everything
changes.

What I'd like to do is specify in a file all the directories whose
contents I'd like backed up (and certain sub-directories from that list
which I'd not like backed up.) I'd also like to specify a list of files
I don't want backed up (such as mp3s, and various video formats.) Just
a simple file which I can easily maintain - adding and removing things
as necessary.

I don't understand how the above command worked so well, yet when I
specify a list of directories in a file and use the following command:

rdiff-backup --include-filelist rdiff-backup.in --exclude '**' /
mobius::/var/rsync/backup/spacebox

Only the directories I specified (and not their contents) are backed up.

I have the same problem when trying to use rsync - the whole
include/exclude system just seems very unintuitive. I'm even having a
difficult time following the docs What am I missing?

Thanks,

-- Matt.

Duke wrote:

Am I the only one who finds the include/exclude options a little
confusing?


nope. I find it confusing too. Ben (author) is a Professor of Logic
however, so you know it makes sense. Just not to us mere mortals :)

What I'd like to do is specify in a file all the directories whose
contents I'd like backed up (and certain sub-directories from that list
which I'd not like backed up.)

this works for me:
the filelist:

#cat /etc/rdiff-backup/filelist

/home/public/MYOB*
- /home/public/software
- /home/public/archive
/mnt/clairenew/
- /bin
- /boot
- /cdrom
- /dev
- /etc
- /floppy
- /home
- /initrd
- /initrd.img
- /lib
- /lost+found
- /mnt
- /opt
- /proc
- /root
- /sbin
- /tmp
- /usr
- /var
- /vmlinuz
- /vmlinuz.old

the command:
/usr/bin/rdiff-backup -v6 --include-globbing-filelist
/etc/rdiff-backup/filelist --print-statistics /
sponge::/var/backupdisk/premierbeer

hope that helps.
if you find a good way of explaining it all, or some to some new
understanding, stick it on the wiki :)

dave

On 24 May 2004, Duke <list_usr < at > spacebox.net> wrote:

I have the same problem when trying to use rsync - the whole
include/exclude system just seems very unintuitive. I'm even having a
difficult time following the docs What am I missing?

I'm writing a new tool which does similar stuff. Maybe you'd like to
outline what you think is an intuitive way to do this?

--
Martin

Duke <list_usr < at > spacebox.net>
wrote the following on Mon, 24 May 2004 15:24:53 -0400

Am I the only one who finds the include/exclude options a little
confusing?

No, apparently not. But personally I think the --include/--exclude is
pretty intuitive, relatively speaking.

Why is the behaviour between --include/exclude so much different from
--include/exclude-filelist?

I don't understand how the above command worked so well, yet when I
specify a list of directories in a file and use the following command:

If you want the same behavior as --include/--exclude in a file list,
use --include-globbing-filelist/--exclude-globbing-filelist, as David
Kempe mentioned.

The reason there is two options for filelists is because I thought
people would want to specify files using "find" or something similar.
So suppose you used, for instance:

find foo -maxdepth 2 | rdiff-backup --include-filelist-stdin foo bar

intending to back up only the directories two deep. This would not
work as intended if filelists and commandline excludes worked the same
way: find would produce some directory "foo/subdir", and then
rdiff-backup would back up everything under subdir.

Another reason is that when processing command line arguments
rdiff-backup reorders and sorts the includes/excludes. When
processing a filelist, I think rdiff-backup assumes that it's in order
and processes the list lazily. This is so you don't have to generate
the complete filelist all at once.

I forget now, but there are a number of issues considered and I'm
generally satisfied with the usability of the admittedly complex
system.

Just remember to use --*-globbing-* if you are producing the filelists
by hand.

Only the directories I specified (and not their contents) are backed
up.

That is supposed to be a feature (see explanation above).


--
Ben Escoto

Ben Escoto <bescoto < at > stanford.edu>
wrote the following on Sun, 30 May 2004 21:06:43 -0400

Just remember to use --*-globbing-* if you are producing the filelists
by hand.

I think this has come up before so I just added a note to this effect
under the man page's description of the
--include-filelist/--exclude-filelist options.


--
Ben Escoto