Eric,/h
I just did a brand new rdiff-backup on a newly formatted USB drive. I
included the '--exclude '/home/eric/VirtualBox VMs',' but rdiff-backup
went and included ca 250 GB of that directory in the backup.
PS--I think the old backup got corrupted somehow. When I tried to do
'regress', it kept telling me not enough space on the disk, and when I
tried to do rdiff-backup-delete, it told me that target I gave it wasn't
an rdiff-backup...
So I started over. But why doesn't the --exclude parameter work?
Here's the command I used:
sudo rdiff-backup --api-version 201 backup --exclude
'/home/eric/VirtualBox&VMs' --include /home/eric --include /var/www
--include /var/lib/mysql --include /usr/share/fonts --exclude '**' /
'/run/media/eric/backup 2025-02/XPS-2025-02'
Thanks for any insight into this. I'll try rdiff-backup-delete to get
rid of all those GBs filling up my USB disk.
Eric Beversluis
www.ericbeversluis.com
2x Honorable Mention--Writer's Digest Contest
On 2/23/25 4:17 PM, EricZolf wrote:
No, the previous inclusion of the VM wouldn't cause the later exclusion to be
ignored, but it might take a while until it's moved away, due to the delta
mechanism.
Removing the file using rdiff-backup-delete might be a better option (but then
it's completely gone).
On February 23, 2025 7:44:07 PM UTC, Eric Beversluis via Any discussion of
rdiff-backup <rdiff-backup-users@nongnu.org> wrote:
Eric, sorry about replying privately. I don't know what made me think you had
replied to me privately. When I look now, I see it was addressed to the list.
Thanks for the suggestions re the command.
Eric Beversluis
www.ericbeversluis.com
2x Honorable Mention--Writer's Digest Contest
On 2/23/25 12:51 PM, EricZolf wrote:
Hi,
again, please reply to the list and only to the list.
On 23/02/2025 12:54, Eric Beversluis wrote:
HI Eric,
Maybe I edited too much out of the command to keep it brief. Here's the
complete command. It's the one I've been long using with the addition of
'--api-version 201' and '--exclude '/home/eric/VirtualBox VMs''.
sudo rdiff-backup --api-version 201 backup --exclude '/home/eric/ VirtualBox
VMs' --include /home/eric --include /var/www --include /var/ lib/mysql
--include /usr/share/fonts --exclude '**' / /run/media/eric/
ec90af29-6371-4399-9f2f-5eaf005af33e/XPS-2024-11-08
The 'VirtualBox VMs' directory has gotten too big, with the new VM in there
(that I created from scratch) and the files of the VM I was trying to restore
from rdiff-backup. And since VirtualBox didn't like what I restored from
rdiff-backup, I decided to leave that whole directory out of the backup.
You didn't say which version of rdiff-backup you're using, but the command line
looks correct to me.
You could do 2 things:
1. add `--verbosity 5` (or more) _before_ backup to list the f\iles backed-up
and see which files are really listed. Without it, how do you know which files
are backed up?
I knew it was backing up the \VirtualBox VMs directory when the backup was
taking way too long, and I took a look at what was being written to the backup
disk and the amount of space being used on the disk. At that point I aborted
the backup and have since regressed it to the Feb 18 backup.
(Using rdiff-backup 2.2.6 on Fedora 40.)
Since the previous backup included \VirtualBox VMs, would that cause
rdiff-backup to ignore the --exclude argument in the revised command?
2. replace the space through a question mark in '/home/eric/VirtualBox?VMs'; it
shouldn't be an issue but you never know.
KR, Eric
Thanks.
Eric Beversluis
www.ericbeversluis.com
2x Honorable Mention--Writer's Digest Contest
On 2/23/25 2:51 AM, EricZolf wrote:
Hi,
are you sure this is the right command? It should have source and target
directory, but this one has only target. Which version of rdiff-backup are you
using?
KR, Eric (too)
On February 23, 2025 5:13:15 AM UTC, Eric Beversluis via Any discussion of
rdiff-backup <rdiff-backup-users@nongnu.org> wrote:
I'm trying to back up my home directory while excluding the / VirtualBox VMs
directory. I came up with this new command that, according to the syntax
instructions, should mean rdiff-backup would henceforth skip that directory.
rdiff-backup --api-version 201 backup --exclude
'/home/eric/VirtualBox VMs' --include /home/eric
--exclude '**' /run/media/eric/backup
Yet, when I ran this command, it proceeded to backup the 'VirtualBox VMs'
folder. I thought I understood the syntax as saying that the -- exclude Folder,
coming before the --include /home/eric would take precedence and leave Folder
out of the /home/eric backup.
What am I getting wrong here?
