Backups also empty folders

[rucksman]

I discovered that (at least with option --list and --dry-run) empty (sub-)folders are not backed up. Is this by design or some error on my side? I am working with --pattern-from and a pattern file wirh something like this:

+ /path/to/some/folder

All files in /path/to/some/folder will be backup up according to --list and --dry-run, but not the empty folder /path/to/some/folder/subfolder. Is there a way to keep the folder structure, i.e. to include the empty folder?

[ThomasWaldmann]

Usually borg recurses starting from the recursion roots (paths) given as commandline argument or in the pattern file as R /starthere.

[rucksman]

In my --pattern-from file I have this at the beginning:

P sh
R /path/to

So in theory the empty folder

+ /path/to/some/folder/subfolder

should be included in the backup? Unfortunately it isn't, at least not in the output of --list and --dry-run.

[ThomasWaldmann]

OK, that sounds like a bug or some other issue.

Can you give a simple script that does all needed to reproduce and show the problem?

[rucksman]

Well, I do not want to post my complete --pattern-from file and my whole folder/file structure here, but try this:

mkdir -p borgroot/path/to/some/folder/emptysupfolder
touch borgroot/test0.txt && touch borgroot/path/test1.txt && touch borgroot/path/to/test2.txt && touch borgroot/path/to/some/test3.txt && touch borgroot/path/to/some/folder/test4.txt

Then put a borg-exclude.txt in the parent directory of borgroot/:

P sh
R /full/path/to/borgroot
- /full/path/to/borgroot/path/to/*.txt
+ /full/path/to/borgroot
- pp:/full/path/to/borgroot

Then do

borg create --list --dry-run --patterns-from /full/path/to/borg-exclude.txt <REPOSITORY>

Result:

- /full/path/to/borgroot/path/to/some/folder/test4.txt
- /full/path/to/borgroot/path/to/some/test3.txt
x /full/path/to/borgroot/path/to/test2.txt
- /full/path/to/borgroot/path/test1.txt
- /full/path/to/borgroot/test0.txt

As you can see, "emptysupfolder" is missing.

[ThomasWaldmann]

It rather seems like all directories are missing from the --list output when using --dry-run.

If one runs it without --dry-run, they are listed, including emptysubfolder.

[ThomasWaldmann]

Reproduced with borg 1.2-maint branch and this script:

export TESTROOT=/tmp/borgroot

mkdir -p $TESTROOT/path/to/some/folder/emptysubfolder
touch $TESTROOT/test0.txt
touch $TESTROOT/path/test1.txt
touch $TESTROOT/path/to/test2.txt
touch $TESTROOT/path/to/some/test3.txt
touch $TESTROOT/path/to/some/folder/test4.txt

cat >borg-exclude.txt <<EOF
P sh
R /tmp/borgroot
- /tmp/borgroot/path/to/*.txt
+ /tmp/borgroot
- pp:/tmp/borgroot
EOF

export BORG_REPO=/tmp/b12test
borg init -e none
borg create --list --dry-run --patterns-from=borg-exclude.txt '::archive-{now}'

[ThomasWaldmann]

@rucksman thanks for reporting this, you found a (cosmetic) bug. \o/

I locked this topic, so all further discussion (if any) is either in issue #7209 (if it matches the topic there) or in a new issue (if there is anything else to do, in that case it will need a new reproducer script in the style as seen above and a separate issue).