4 4 3 Beefalo:Exclude with Regular Expressions

Exclude with Regular Expressions

When creating a backup task in the GUI, you specify the source for your backup as well as define any files or patterns you want to exclude from backup. Note that when the number of files to be excluded from backup exceeds the allowed length for the exclude list, you should set up custom exclusion by adding files, file types or regular expressions in the Exclude list editor. On Windows, you can also use the option Pattern exclude (see Exclude with File Patterns); on Linux, it is only possible to exclude by using regular expressions (RegExp exclude). For more details, see Creating Exclude List.

Note

When creating exclude lists with regex, pay attention to which SEP sesam version you are using. As of ≥ Jaglion V2 it is possible to use separate excludes for files and directories, which can help in creating more selective excludes. If exclude ends with a trailing slash "/$" (e.g. .tmp/$), it is recognized as a regex for directory exclusion. If there is no trailing slash "/" (e.g. .tmp) at the end, it is recognized as a regex for file exclusion.

Examples for exclude list with regular expressions:

• Backing up /var without /var/tmp but with file or directory /var/tmp1:
\./var/tmp$
• ≥ Jaglion V2: Backing up directory /var without file /var/tmp but with directory /var/tmp:
\./var/tmp/$
• Backing up /var without any file or directory */tmp*:
/tmp
• ≥ Jaglion V2: Backing up /var without directory /var/tmp:
/tmp/$
• Backing up source /usr avoiding *.o, *.tmp, a.out, old*.c and old* files and directories:
\.o$, \.tmp$, /a\.out$, /old.*\.c$, /old.*$
• Backing up /usr without /usr/var/spool and /usr/var/log:
\./usr/var/spool$, \./usr/var/log$
• Avoid all syslog####.log files and directories:
/syslog[0-9]*.log$

For more RegExp examples, see RegExp: Examples for Excluding Matched Patterns.

	Note
	The exclude list on the SEP sesam Linux Client can also be used as an include list by specifying the + (plus) sign at the beginning of a pattern. For details, see Advanced Backup and Restore Options.