Unable to include a directory within an excluded directory

[benjamindaines]

I am trying to exclude the .cache directory in my home directory, but I do want the yay directory within .cache to be backed up. I've tried adding it to the source directories, and have tried using +/home/ben/.cache/yay* within the excludes, however it does not back up. This seems to be the proper usage of the + according to borg documentation. Suggestions? Thanks.

[real-yfprojects]

Vorta passes your excludes to borg using the --exclude-from cmd option. Thus the advanced pattern style using +/-/R/... doesn't work.
You can still achieve the desired behaviour:

re:^/home/ben/.cache/(?!yay)

[benjamindaines]

Vorta passes your excludes to borg using the --exclude-from cmd option. Thus the advanced pattern style using +/-/R/... doesn't work. You can still achieve the desired behaviour:

re:^/home/ben/.cache/(?!yay)

I just saw your response now, thank you. FINALLY have it doing what I want. I suspected that the issue was that the excludes were being passed with --exclude-from. However, why? Would it not make more sense to have, especially the raw, tab behave as a normal exclude list (meaning includes can be added as well)?

EDIT: this may not even work. When I first plugged that line into the raw section, the file counts looked appropriate. However, upon recalculating, the file count is reflecting the entire .cache directory being backed up. I'm going to run the update and see what happens, but I am not hopeful as I was just a second ago.

EDIT EDIT: Yup, it's taking the entire cache directory :\ so that did not work. It seems like I'm going to have to relocate my yay cache..... not something a user should have to do.

[goebbe]

@benjamindaines Personally I use --pattern-from with a separated pattern file. The include and exclude work reliably for me.
However, there are some things to consider:

• when you use include and exclude the order does matter.
• excluding a folder, e.g. .cache will exclude the folder from future backups - but it will not delete the .cache folder from old backups.
• look at the borg documentation on how-to remove .cache folders from old backup archives (using borg recreate together with your new --pattern or --pattern-from i.e. include and exclude restrictions). Test this before you recreate all your old archives. ;-) https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/usage/recreate.html
• Test using --dry-run and double check before you use borg recreate

Using --pattern the following pattern could be used
--pattern=-home/Username/**/.cache

Using --pattern-from and a pattern file, the following line excludes all the .cache files and .cache folders of Username:

## exclude .cache files and folders:
- home/Username/**/.cache

Warning: --pattern and --pattern-from are borg features that are not integrated into Vorta. Consider these as "advanced" features that require some reading.

[benjamindaines]

Correct, order does matter. That's why it was such a frustrating experience, because I was reading the documentation and it should have worked if it were for --exclude-from

Patterns may be the better solution, and I see they're added to the UI now. However, I have not experimented with them. When I adopted vorta and originally made this config, patterns were not included.

I think vorta directing users to Borg documentation adds to this problem as well. Without indication that vorta excludes are strictly excludes, Borg documentation gives the impression that you can do includes and excludes.

Just things to consider.

Or, abstract the config further and allow the user to pick excluded locations via file picker and calculate the appropriate config in the dark. Still allow text based config, but have the primary method of exclusion be Fischer Price style.

[goebbe]

@benjamindaines
Do the Vorta docs refer to borg at all?
Also in the docs, the use of include or the use of --pattern is nowhere recommended. And the GUI only mentions exclude.

I believe that include is just something that can be useful - and this is the reason why we have enhancement request and workarounds, posted by users.
These use cases go beyond what Vorta has built in. If somebody use these (more advanced) borg features he/she should consult the borg documentation, first.

I fully agree, that this should be stressed more prominently.

[benjamindaines]

It doesn't look like they do.... pretty sure they did at one point though. Again, this discussion was started a year and a half ago, and I'll admit that I did not look before making that statement ;)