How can you exclude a folder with exceptions base on path contents?

[Lonniebiz]

How can you exclude a folder with exceptions base on path contents?
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/683210/borg-exclude-a-folder-with-some-exceptions

[Arcitec]

Yes, you can do nested includes/excludes in Borg with patterns.

See the example about half-way down the patterns documentation page. It includes /home/susan and then excludes /home/* (all other home-folders):

https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/usage/help.html

(Search for the word "Susan" on the page to find the example.)

[reiphoNi9iey3qu]

This post comes up high on search results, a mild hijack. It's not the answer for OP but it will save someone else a tonne of time and is self explanatory and easily modifiable:

borg create --patterns-from /tmp/pattern.lst example.com:/path/to/borg_backup_dir::UsrShareDoc-Backup1

note: if you're not backing up remotely get rid of example.com:

/tmp/pattern.lst contains:

P sh
R /usr/share/doc
- /usr/share/doc/borgbackup
+ /usr/share/doc/

i.e. backup that whole directory minus the docs for borgbackup and send that to borg on your server at example.com.

Those leading slashes are required, despite the examples in the documentation not having any...

Modify the paths to suit your needs, add more - lines to exclude more stuff you don't want backed up. Have different pattern files for different backup tasks.

[cyb3rz3us]

@tux2bsd --- this is great information and wanted to ask if you have any thoughts on a related case:

GOAL: Specify a RR that has dozens of subDirs --- i.e. homeDir --- and exclude all except a few subDirs AND prevent borg from scanning into the excluded subDirs.

[reiphoNi9iey3qu]

I'm not clicking as to what is meant by RR? recursive rule? remote repo?

i.e. homeDir --- and exclude all except a few subDirs AND prevent borg from scanning into the excluded subDirs.

Surely you would just do this:

+ /home/user1/important/thing
+ /home/user1/another/backed/up/dir/

[ThomasWaldmann]

Closing this as outdated: it has seen no activity for a long time and predates the current borg releases.

If this still affects you on a current version - borg 1.4.x (stable) or the borg 2.0.0 beta - please open a new discussion with up-to-date details.