[Box Backup] Regex exclusions

Achim J. Latz achim+box at qustodium.net
Thu Nov 17 13:43:19 GMT 2011


Hello Pete:

On 29/09/2011 18:50, Peter Jalajas, GigaLock Backup Services wrote:

> I'm interested in collaborating on this. Thanks for raising the issue.

I just found a similar thread that you started in 2006 8-O

> A few planning or philosophical topics we should consider:
> 1.  Windows Exclusions are not case-sensitive, so we no longer have to
> add both upper and lower case versions of each Exclusion--yeah!

I would assume after reading Chris' comments that this is true for all 
exclusions, not Windows only.

> 2.  Different use-cases will need different Exclusion sets, so we
> should be prepared to offer at least a couple of different versions.
> For example, my (intended) strategy is to Exclude _everything_, then
> explicitly Include important files.  I do that because I've seen a lot
> of junk, with lots of versions of each, being backed.  Do we prepare
> for bare-metal restore?  Do we backup apps for which a CD is likely
> handy?  Etc.

OK, perhaps even something along the lines of "regex recipes" that you 
also seem to have used in your list enclosed below:

* # Exclude everything:
ExcludeFilesRegex = *.

* # Include Outlook:
AlwaysIncludeFilesRegex = *.pst\$
AlwaysIncludeFilesRegex = .*backup.*\.pst$

* ...

> 3. How should we merge together our different sets of Exclusion
> suggestions?  Should we move this to a trac wiki page on the website?
> I tried to do so before sending this, but, alas, I've locked myself
> out of the trac wiki (I've asked Chris offline to help me out).  Here
> is an old page that could be resurrected for this purpose:
> https://www.boxbackup.org/trac/wiki/Win32Regex

See my reply to Chris earlier today, I think this page should be unified 
with the default configuration page, and then we add one or more new 
page(s) to give users the ability to copy from/be inspired by/contribute to.

> 4. Should we, or not, use regex option pipes to combine options?

I would group them semantically (per Application or type of data, for 
instance), and add corresponding comments as shown above, at least for 
the sake of the Wiki. This makes the various RegEx easier to maintain.

> 5.  We should maybe alphabetize the Exclusions as much as possible.

I agree, again to make them more maintainable.

> (I wish we could push some common Exclusion strings into variables of
> some sort that different BackupLocations could "import".  Exclusions
> are fraught with typographic errors.)

Chris, would this perhaps be possible by adding additional "keys" in 
bbackupd.conf like this (not very elegant, I know):

ExcludeTemplate_1, ExcludeTemplate_2, [..], ExcludeTemplate_n
IncludeTemplate_1, IncludeTemplate_2, [..], IncludeTemplate_n

that can be used within the regular ExcludeFilesRegex etc. like this:

ExcludeFilesRegex = IncludeTemplate_2|IncludeTemplate_42|[...]

Some other ideas can be found here 
<https://crashplan.zendesk.com/entries/302133-improve-ui-for-backup-exclusions>, 
particularly the part of defining an exclusion from a given file pattern 
would be great for Boxi (although not a priority, as >90% of the users 
will never touch exclusions).

> For the record, below are my current default Exclusions--suggestions welcome.

Perhaps you could start with creating a new (dedicated) wiki page for 
this, so that we do not spam the mailing list with the back-and-forth? 
Perhaps send the link for the new page to the list, so that interested 
parties can contribute or at least follow the progress?

I will also compare your exclusions with the list that we are using, and 
get back to you by PM.

Best regards, Achim

-- 
Achim J. Latz, Qustodium Internet Security
achim.latz at qustodium.net · http://www.qustodium.net
Data Encryption · Backup Automatisation · E-Mail Protection



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