Challenge: exclude all big folders that are a copy

[DantzEvangelist]

Okay, here's a challenge: Exclude all folders named "Extract" of total size >=50MB.

 

 

 

USEFUL? DEFINITELY. The general idea is to exclude (or ask before backing up) not just big files, but also all big folders that are a copy of something that can be readily gotten again. And on our computers, a subfolder named "extract" always stores the result of unzipping or otherwise extracting the contents of an archive, and almost always the archive is downloaded and can be readily obtained again.

 

 

 

SHOULD BE EASY, RIGHT? I don't think so....

 

 

 

Yes, it's easy to create a selector which selects all folders (including all their subfolders and contents) named "Extract". And it's easy add an "AND folder size >= 50MB, selecting sub-folders". But this doesn't do what you want: because, unless the whole volume is under 50MB (rare) and nothing is selected, the entire volume is selected because the top-level folder meets the size criteria and all subfolders are then selected (actually, due to a bug in the latest Retrospect 6.0.206, with at least the size selector, the top-level folder is mistakenly NOT considered (so not selected), though all its subfolders are selected in full, (unless one happens to fail the size test); but since the "extract" subfolder is never in the top-level folder, even the bug's behavior does us no good).

 

 

 

Well then, choose "AND folder size >= 50MB, NOT selecting subfolders". This doesn't do what you want either: it just chooses folders whose immediate files, excluding subfolders, total >= 50MB. That's a weird measure: for us the folder size we're talking about is all it's contents, not just its immediate files which don't happen to be in subfolders; this size measures the wrong thing.

 

 

 

Well then, choose "folder named "Extract" NOT selecting subfolders". This does the same weirdness, but now for "Extract" folders. It only selects the immediate files of every folder named "Extract", but not it's subfolder's files. No point I can see in that either.

 

 

 

So, though excluding (or selecting) "all folders named "Extract" of total size >=50MB" sounds simple enough, and seems terribly useful (for identifying big files AND BIG FOLDERS) which you might not want to back-up (or backup w/o asking)), I see no way to construct a selector to do this. :-(

 

 

 

Any takers? I think it may be impossible, and we've got a semi-serious design limitation here which hopefully will be addressed in the next version.

 

 

 

And in the meantime, the only workaround I can think of, is just to exclude (or rather, ask about) all folders named "extract", even the possibly-many small ones.

 

 

 

Mike Parker . . . . ( Free IT Guide: see www.Cytex.com/go/MBParker/Seeking )