Re: Exclude patterns

[jerry <jerry@tr2.com>]

On 06/29/2014 07:48, Bob Williams wrote:

> But how is maintaining a list of paths/files to be excluded in
> /root/excludes different to maintaining a similar list in
> /usr/local/etc/tarsnap.conf ?

*** It's different in that root/excludes is only one particular 
excludes
file - to be used when backing up /root.  Every other directory 
hierarchy
that I back up can have its own excludes file.  Three years from now 
when I
have to maintain the thing, it will be easier to find an excludes file
that's next to the data being excluded.  For one thing, I'll have 
totally
forgotten about /usr/local/etc/tarsnap.conf.  Or did I stick it in 
/etc? Or
/usr/etc?  Also, each hierarchy may have its own needs with regard to 
the type
of files being excluded.  In one hierarchy, I may want to exclude all 
.pdf
files, because they're program output.  In another one, the .pdf files 
may be
irreplaceable gold.  My editor saves backups in the form of *~.   So it 
might
make sense to exclude that in the global file.  But if some program 
elsewhere uses
*~ files for something else, I might bang my head against the wall - 
Why doesn't it
work?!?  Why won't it back up???? - for a significant time before 
remembering
about /usr/local/etc/tarsnap.conf.

                     - Jerry