Exclude Pattern for Cache Directories

[slauzon]

I'm attempting to exclude cache directories/files from my home directory backups on a windows PC. I created a backup plan with the exclude (tried both case-sensitive and case-insensitive) field containing "**cache** **cache2**". However, the backup keeps attempting to backup cache files and directories (example below). Any help is greatly appreciated.

Error on item: C:\Users\<readacted>\AppData\Local\AMD\DxCache\b51bb678dd41a27.36b2c627f214d906.7b1f799a.dad1858.0.parc Error on item: C:\Users\<readacted>\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default\Cache\Cache_Data\data_0

[garethgeorge]

My iexcludes are set as *cache*, *temp*, and *tmp* . I'm not sure if restic (used under the hood) will handle the double ** correctly -- you can take a look at https://restic.readthedocs.io/en/latest/040_backup.html#excluding-files for details on how those options are processed.

[slauzon]

Hi. Thanks for responding. I changed my iexcludes field to *cache* *temp* *tmp* as you suggested, but it appears that it's still attempting to backup directories it shouldn't. See error below.

[restic] {"message_type":"verbose_[tasklog] 2024-09-14T14:11:31.997-0500 warn backup for plan "desktop" an unknown error was encountered in processing item: C:\Users\<redacted>\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default\Cache\Cache_Data\data_0

[amarendra]

I kind of have a related doubt:

Can I just provide a file with list of paths/files to backup and a file with list of paths/files to ignore/exclude?

In restic cli I used to achieve that by exporting:

export RESTIC_INCLUDE_FILE="$HOME/path/restic.include"
export RESTIC_EXCLUDE_FILE="$HOME/path/restic.exclude"

and then using them as

	--files-from $RESTIC_INCLUDE_FILE \
	--exclude-caches \
	--exclude-file=$RESTIC_EXCLUDE_FILE >> $RESTIC_BACKUP_LOG_FILE

But in Backrest all I am seeing is "Paths" and apparently I have to add every path one by one - is that correct? Anyway use the include file or add some other config file where I can keep that list instead of adding one by one.

[amarendra]

Yeah. Include and exclude via new-line separated list files (just like restic supports it) is kinda a must have. I was surprised not to find it here. Or I guess it can be exposed via a flag really.

[garethgeorge]

I don’t quite follow — this is absolutely supported and is why backrest allows you to forward flags.

Use the —exclude-file=your exclude list option supported by restic.

You are not required at all to specify your excludes in the UI’s list.

[amarendra]

So you are saying these are supported?

--files-from $RESTIC_INCLUDE_FILE 
--exclude-file=$RESTIC_INCLUDE_FILE

as flags in the Plan?

I will set RESTIC_INCLUDE_FILE and RESTIC_INCLUDE_FILE path value in env vars of the repo. Right? Or just directly pass the file path in flags?

I tried it didn't work. (Maybe I was not supposed to pass the "="

[amarendra]

Well, it seems it works @arminus

--files-from=direct-file-path
--exclude-file=direct-file-path

[arminus]

Great, I was kind of confused here!