Re: Question about using --exclude

Eric,/h
I just did a brand new rdiff-backup on a newly formatted USB drive. I 
included the  '--exclude '/home/eric/VirtualBox VMs',' but rdiff-backup 
went and included ca 250 GB of that directory in the backup.

PS--I think the old backup got corrupted somehow. When I tried to do 
'regress', it kept telling me not enough space on the disk, and when I 
tried to do rdiff-backup-delete, it told me that target I gave it wasn't 
an rdiff-backup...

So I started over. But why doesn't the --exclude parameter work?

Here's the command I used:

sudo rdiff-backup --api-version 201 backup  --exclude 
'/home/eric/VirtualBox&VMs' --include /home/eric --include /var/www 
--include /var/lib/mysql --include /usr/share/fonts --exclude '**' / 
'/run/media/eric/backup 2025-02/XPS-2025-02'

Thanks for any insight into this. I'll try rdiff-backup-delete to get 
rid of all those GBs filling up my USB disk.


Eric Beversluis
www.ericbeversluis.com
2x Honorable Mention--Writer's Digest Contest


On 2/23/25 4:17 PM, EricZolf wrote:
> No, the previous inclusion of the VM wouldn't cause the later exclusion to be ignored,  but it might take a while until it's moved away, due to the delta mechanism.
> Removing the file using rdiff-backup-delete might be a better option (but then it's completely gone).
>
> On February 23, 2025 7:44:07 PM UTC, Eric Beversluis via Any discussion of rdiff-backup <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Eric, sorry about replying privately. I don't know what made me think you had replied to me privately. When I look now, I see it was addressed to the list. Thanks for the suggestions re the command.
>>
>> Eric Beversluis
>> www.ericbeversluis.com
>> 2x Honorable Mention--Writer's Digest Contest
>>
>>
>> On 2/23/25 12:51 PM, EricZolf wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> again, please reply to the list and only to the list.
>>>
>>> On 23/02/2025 12:54, Eric Beversluis wrote:
>>>> HI Eric,
>>>> Maybe I edited too much out of the command to keep it brief. Here's the complete command. It's the one I've been long using with the addition of '--api-version 201' and '--exclude '/home/eric/VirtualBox VMs''.
>>>>
>>>> sudo rdiff-backup --api-version 201 backup  --exclude '/home/eric/ VirtualBox VMs' --include /home/eric --include /var/www --include /var/ lib/mysql --include /usr/share/fonts --exclude '**' / /run/media/eric/ ec90af29-6371-4399-9f2f-5eaf005af33e/XPS-2024-11-08
>>>>
>>>> The 'VirtualBox VMs' directory has gotten too big, with the new VM in there (that I created from scratch) and the files of the VM I was trying to restore from rdiff-backup. And since VirtualBox didn't like what I restored from rdiff-backup, I decided to leave that whole directory out of the backup.
>>> You didn't say which version of rdiff-backup you're using, but the command line looks correct to me.
>>> You could do 2 things:
>>>
>>> 1. add `--verbosity 5` (or more) _before_ backup to list the f\iles backed-up and see which files are really listed. Without it, how do you know which files are backed up?
>> I knew it was backing up the \VirtualBox VMs directory when the backup was taking way too long, and I took a look at what was being written to the backup disk and the amount of space being used on the disk. At that point I aborted the backup and have since regressed it to the Feb 18 backup.
>>
>> (Using rdiff-backup 2.2.6 on Fedora 40.)
>>
>> Since the previous backup included \VirtualBox VMs, would that cause rdiff-backup to ignore the --exclude argument in the revised command?
>>
>>> 2. replace the space through a question mark in '/home/eric/VirtualBox?VMs'; it shouldn't be an issue but you never know.
>>>
>>> KR, Eric
>>>
>>>> Thanks.
>>>>
>>>> Eric Beversluis
>>>> www.ericbeversluis.com
>>>> 2x Honorable Mention--Writer's Digest Contest
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 2/23/25 2:51 AM, EricZolf wrote:
>>>>> Hi,
>>>>> are you sure this is the right command? It should have source and target directory, but this one has only target. Which version of rdiff-backup are you using?
>>>>> KR, Eric (too)
>>>>>
>>>>> On February 23, 2025 5:13:15 AM UTC, Eric Beversluis via Any discussion of rdiff-backup <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>> I'm trying to back up my home directory while excluding the / VirtualBox VMs directory. I came up with this new command that, according to the syntax instructions, should mean rdiff-backup would henceforth skip that directory.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>     rdiff-backup --api-version 201 backup  --exclude
>>>>>>     '/home/eric/VirtualBox VMs' --include /home/eric
>>>>>>     --exclude '**' /run/media/eric/backup
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Yet, when I ran this command, it proceeded to backup the 'VirtualBox VMs' folder. I thought I understood the syntax as saying that the -- exclude Folder, coming before the --include /home/eric would take precedence and leave Folder out of the /home/eric backup.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> What am I getting wrong here?
>>>
>>