Best character to use to exclude files and folders from Backup

[Daniels]

I was wondering what is the best character to use to exclude files and folders from being backed up or if it is better to specify the folder name itself? Currently I use an option-8 on our Mac clients and a ^ for our Windows clients. The only problem with this is that certain programs want the name to not include these characters.

 

I know that on the Windows clients you can specify which files and folders to exclude in the control panel per machine however I have not found any way to do this on the Mac clients. If anybody knows a way to exclude specific files and folders per machine on Mac clients it would be greatly appreciated?

[rhwalker]

I know that on the Windows clients you can specify which files and folders to exclude in the control panel per machine however I have not found any way to do this on the Mac clients. If anybody knows a way to exclude specific files and folders per machine on Mac clients it would be greatly appreciated?

Just craft an appropriate Rule (f/k/a/ Selector).

 

See page 208 and following of the Retrospect 8 Users Guide, and especially page 211. Hint: make one of the conditions be "Source Host" with the machine name, then use appropriate other file/folder selectors (um, rules).

 

Russ

[Daniels]

The problem is that I have 9 Mac clients to backup and they all have different configurations so the rule would be pretty complicated since you can not use multiple rules for a backup script. If would be helpful if you could do on the machine itself.

 

If you provide an example with multiple clients that would be greatly appreciated.

Edited April 29, 2010 by Guest

[rhwalker]

You may not understand how rules (selectors) are crafted, and you are wrong if you believe that you cannot have multiple rules for a backup script. Nine machine names is not that difficult, and rules can be included as conditions for other rules..

 

It's just multiple conditions. Look at one of the more complex standard selectors (caches, for example).

 

That's what the +/- buttons are for at the right of each condition - to cascade conditions.

 

Probably the easiest way would be to create one "Machine Name" rule with all of the machine names:

 

Any of the following are true:

Source Host is Bob

Source Host is Mary

etc., etc.

 

Then another rule:

 

All of the following are true:

Saved Rule includes Machine Name

whatever conditions you want on the file / folder

 

Implementation is left as an exercise for the reader.

 

Sadly, it's a bit difficult right now to test selectors (um, rules) because preview doesn't work very well.

 

Russ

[Daniels]

What I meant by not being able to select multiple rules for a backup script is that you can only select one rule name in the list of rules however if that rule contains other rules it is the same as applying multiple rules to a script. Thanks for the help and I will have to evaluate and come up with a strategy for each computer.

Edited April 29, 2010 by Guest

[Maser]

Out of curiosity: What programs have problems with the option-8 character?

[Daniels]

I know for instance that the software for the Flip cameras will not create the movies if its storage folder has the option-8 character. Currently I don't know of any others at the moment.

 

I also noticed that some Windows programs such as Picasso will create a new My Pictures folder if the original has an ^.