Selecting Directories / Files to Backup

StoreBackup allows you to use and combine different methods to select directories or individual files to be - or not to be - part of the backup. The following options of storeBackup.pl can be combined.

Matching Directories:

• includeDirs     Allows you to include the specified directories into the backup. You have to use the relative path below sourceDir. If you use this option, only those directories will be saved - nothing else. You may deselect subdirectories of the directories specified with this option via exceptDirs.
• exceptDirs     Allows you to exclude the specified directories from the backup. You have to use the relative path below sourceDir. If you use this option, the selected directories will not be saved. You cannot select subdirectories to backup from the directories specified with this option via includeDirs.
• followLinks     Allows you to very flexibly map directories into the backup. The way to use this option is to create a special directory for backup only and to map the directories to save into this special backup directory simply via symbolic links. You may want to combine this option with exceptDirs. See description of option followLinks in section 6.2. Example 2 also shows how to use followLinks.
• stayInFileSystem     Only files and directories in file systems which are specified by option sourceDir of via the symbolic links handled as directories via option followLinks are saved.

When specifying directories for including or excluding, you can use wildcards. StoreBackup calls a shell to evaluate those wildcards and prints the result in the log file(s). If wildcard sounds strange to you and you want to know what it is, use an internet search engine for the term ``wildcard shell''.

Matching Files:

• includeRule     If you define a rule for this option then only files matching this rule will be included in the backup. This rule is evaluated before exceptRule (if defined).
• exceptRule     If you define a rule for this option then files matching this rule will be excluded from the backup. Because this rule is evaluated after option includeRule, a file matching includeRule and exceptRule will not be stored in the backup.
• exceptTypes     File types specified here will not be saved in the backup. This is useful, if you e.g. do not want to save some type of special files.

Because includeRule and exceptRule only work on files, the backup of the directory structure is not affected by matches. Especially - you cannot match directories itself.

Within a rule, you may use the rule functions MARC_DIR and MARC_DIR_REC to match all files of a directory (maybe including its subdirectories). See EXAMPLE 5 in chapter Defining Rules about how to use those rule functions.

For better control and examination about excluded files because of rules, you may want to use option writeExcludeLog. If set, the (relative) files names of all excluded files are written to .storeBackup.notSaved.bz2 in the top level directory in your actually created backup.