File selector did not work during Transfer Backup Set!!

[haggis999]

I have just run a Transfer Backup Set process in which I set up a couple of 'exclude' conditions, as shown below. The excluded folders contained several GB of files in the source Backup Set. The destination was a newly created Backup Set.

 

But always exclude files matching

Name of folder matches pattern C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\Extensis Portfolio, selecting all enclosed items

or matching

Name of folder matches pattern C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\iView MediaPro, selecting all enclosed items

 

Unfortunately, the result of the transfer was that the new Backup Set was exactly the same size as the original and browsing revealed that it still contained both of the excluded folders and all their contents! Can anyone explain how to make the file selector facility work properly? I'm using Retrospect 7.0 under Windows XP.

 

David

[haggis999]

As an experiment, I ran the Transfer Backup Set again using a slightly different selector definition (but with exactly the same purpose). This time I used:

 

But always exclude files matching

Windows path matches pattern C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\Extensis Portfolio\, selecting all enclosed items

or matching

Windows path matches pattern C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\iView MediaPro\, selecting all enclosed items

 

This time it appears to have worked correctly! However, it is by no means obvious why 'Name of folder matches pattern' should fail while 'Windows path matches pattern' should work. Can anyone explain what was wrong with my first selector definition? Does the use of a trailing backslash in my second version have any significance? Is it just a Retrospect bug?

 

David

[AmyJ]

Hi David -

 

The folder name and the path of the folder are two very different criteria. You were not asking it to look for folder location - you were asking it to find the name of the actual folder. In Windows the folder name is "Extensis Portfolio".

 

Selectors are very exact in their execution. That is why we always recommend checking them prior to using them. I'm glad you were able to resolve the issue.

 

Amy

[haggis999]

Hi Amy,

I'm all for exactitude when it come to computer software, but in this case I am still none the wiser. Within my exclusion definition, I was (in your own words) "asking it to find the name of the actual folder". Yes, that's exactly what I intended, and to my eyes, that still seems a pretty clear instruction. If I wasn't asking Retrospect to exclude this folder and it's contents, then what was this selector really asking it to do? Why was there no effect at all?

 

Would you please also provide an example of a successful use of the 'Name of folder matches pattern' selector method, as this may help in clarifying what appear to be some very subtle distinctions.

 

David

[safreeds]

David,

 

What Amy was trying to tell you was that the first condition you set told Retrospect to find a folder named "C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\Extensis Portfolio\". Such a folder obviously does not exist since that is a path not a single folder in the path. If your intention was to only exclude the last folder you would have put in the exclusion:

 

Name of folder does match pattern Extensis Portfolio

 

The second selector you created worked because you gave it the proper syntax. You meant for Retrospect to get to the folders in questions by giving it the path, but what you actually told Retrospect to do was look for a folder named as that entire path.

 

Sorry for the confusion,

 

Scott

[haggis999]

Scott,

Ah, now I understand! Thanks for clearing the fog. I am so used to thinking of the path as an integral part of the folder name that I misunderstood Amy's post. However, I think that it was stupid of the Retrospect programmers not to have made it crystal clear that references to a folder should not include the path. It is perfectly normal in the Windows world to refer to a folder by including a full or partial path along with the folder name. References to a folder without the path can be highly ambiguous and are normally best avoided.

 

David

[rschreiber]

It seems to me that it should have rejected this since "\" is not allowed in a folder name (along with several other characters). That would have prevented the error that was made.