Global and per-profile exclude list

[m3nu]

Just an idea. Would be interested in whether this is feasible.

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Most OSs have a number of default locations that can be excluded from backups. Like logs and cache files. Creating these exclusion lists is quite some work and is repeated by each user.

Describe the solution you'd like
I suggest to have managed default exclude lists for each OS that can be included with a checkbox in addition to user-provided exclusions. Example of some exclusions that are likely the same for everyone:

**/.DS_Store
**/.tox
**/.vagrant
**/__pycache__
~/.Trash
~/.android/cache
~/.android/build-cache

[ThomasWaldmann]

I don't think this is a good idea, just because of the many expected different cases.

Just for the samples you have given:

• **/.DS_Store - macOS specific, usually not seen on pure linux or windows
• **/.tox - likely only found on python developer machines
• **/.vagrant - likely only on developer machines
• **/pycache - likely only found on python developer machines
• ~/.Trash - likely only on specific(?) desktop machines
• ~/.android/cache - likely only on android developer machines
• ~/.android/build-cache - likely only on android developer machines

Instead of adding some comfort (less to type), it might also confuse users ("what's this vagrant thing?").

[m3nu]

Thanks for weighing in. You're right. The actual list of files is probably too specific. Github tried to make such lists and they are very comprehensive.

How about a global user-defined list that can be applied to a single profile with a checkbox. Roughly like this:

• Misc tab becomes Global Settings
• Global Settings has a section with Global Exclusions
• Every repo has a checkbox above exclusions Use Global Exclusions

This would solve the problem of retyping the same exclusions. Since no one else seems to have this problem, let's make it low-prio until there were some more comments.

[ThomasWaldmann]

If you manage exclusions (or more generally: include/exclude patterns), order of them might be problematic. Maybe not a problem for simple stuff, but definitely if it gets more complex.

Also I am not sure if just dealing with exclusions would be best for vorta or whether it should have the more recent / more general --patterns-* mechanism.

[aritorhamo]

Missing collection of default exclusions was the first thing I noticed when I arrived to the sources tab. Every other back-up software that I have used has had one. It would be very handy, especially because creating exclusions is so complicated in Vorta (I in fact realized that Vorta is not for me when I saw how complicated it is). Here's the user guide for creating exclusions, which opens by clicking the context link on the Sources tab:
borg help patterns
It seems to be written by a computer scientist for computer scientists. Unfortunately I'm not one :-).

[atfrase]

Since OSX comes with a standard default backup tool already (Time Machine), and therefore other mac software presumably knows how to add its own backup-unnecessary paths to those exclusions, what about at least adding a checkbox for mac users to just "exclude everything that Time Machine would exclude by default"?

According to this article, those exclusions seem to be stored in /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle/Contents/Resources/StdExclusions.plist and/or accessible via sudo mdfind "com_apple_backup_excludeItem = 'com.apple.backupd'".

[m3nu]

Interesting. That gives a long list with some useful items, like Chrome favicons. I wonder how this is edited and whether this list makes sense for users.