File/directory exclusion suggestion

Hello,

Can anyone tell me if the file exclusion pattern when backing up files&folders in TI v9.1 has to match the entire pathname or is it versatile enough to match parts of the pathname?

For instance, I would like to exclude the pattern others\*.pst, regardless of where the "others" directory is found on the partitions I'm backing up. I was unable to do that, I've tried numerous combinations (others\*.pst, *\others\*.pst, etc). It seems the current implementation demands a full path match or just *.pst in this case, at least that's what the help and manual suggest.

Same goes for date folders (e.g. 2006-01-23) found in a "pictures" directory, regardless of where that directory might be located on the partition. I want to exclude all files and subfolders (no matter how many path levels there are). I thought pictures\?-??-?? would do the trick but again, it does not work. I have to use either the full path or just ?-??-??.

Using the full path in such cases is not what I want because there may be more paths matching pictures\?-??-?? or others\*.pst that I want excluded and I don't want to edit the task each time before it runs, especially since it's a scheduled task that runs weekly and such directories can get created in different areas than the path specified. Using just ?-??-?? or *.pst is again not an option because that might exclude folders I want included.

Is there any way I can achieve that in the current TI v9.1? If not, then consider this a suggestion for the future versions of TI ... it's pretty easy to code as well. You might also want to throw in some advanced exclusion and inclusion features too (regexp, file stat based -- last modified/accesses date, size, etc etc) but at least a partial match ability as in my examples above. Many other backup products are able to do it, I'm surprised TI cannnot but I hope you'll consider implementing it.

Regards

p.s.
In fact, even with a full path x:\mm\pictures\?-??-??, in order to exclude all files and subdirectories I had to try out numerous combinations. I discovered finally that you need to add a single asterisk, i.e. x:\mm\pictures\?-??-??\* or otherwise it does not work. x:\mm\pictures\?-??-??\*.* would only exclude the files but no subdirectories. Leaving it alone would have no effect (nothing is excluded). I think this should be specified in the help and manual somewhere.

 

Hello mastabog,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please be aware that the file exclusion option is available for file-based backups creation only. There is no such option when you create a disk\partition images.

If you want us to change the behaviour of Acronis True Image in any way or add some new features to this product, please feel free to post any of your suggestions in Acronis True Image WISH-LIST thread.

I've forwarded your proposition to the respective person. The corresponding information about excluding files and folders by their path will most likely be added to the respective section of Acronis True Image User's Guide.

If you have any further questions concerning Acronis software, please feel free to submit a request for technical support or post any of them on this forum. We will certainly try to help you in resolving any issues.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

Hello Alexey,

And thanks for your reply.

I did specify that I was refering to the files & folders backup feature of TI v9.1 (in my first phrase and the p.s. is another proof). I am aware that no file exclusion works for partition/disk backup (impossible with sector copy anyway).

I really look forward to seeing any of the file exclusion features I suggested implemented in future versions of TI. I take it that you have already forwarded my suggestions (not only my p.s. note) to the appropriate person or do you think should make another proper suggestion in the wish-list thread?

Thanks for a wonderful tool nonetheless.

Bogdan

 

Hello Bogdan,

I'm sorry for not being attentive enough when reading your initial post.

What concerns your question on how to exclude all folders with some particular name from a file-based backup, please be aware that you should enter the following criterion in order to achieve this goal: *folder name*. In this way, all folders having the name entered between the asterisk symbols will be excluded from a file-based backup. Please note that these folders will be excluded completely, i.e. including all files and subfolders they contain. Therefore there is no reason to enter a criterion like "others\*.pst" as all files residing in the folders named "others" will be excluded as well. If you want to exclude files having ".pst" extension then please create a separate criterion.

If you want us to add some standard options for excluding files and folders from a file-based backup then please post your suggestions in the WHISH-LIST thread mentioned above.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

Hello Bogdan,

I've just reviewed your first post once more and understood that you are interested in excluding all ".pst" files from all folders named "others". In other words, you want to exclude ".pst" from folders named "other" only. I've made a research on this matter and found out that it is not possible.

I've forwarded this information to our Development Team and so the ability to exclude files matching some particular criterion from all folders matching another criterion will most likely be implemented in the future versions\builds of a particular product. I'm afraid that the exact time frame for this is not decided yet.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

... you just made me delete a big post in which I was re-explaining what you have just typed

Yeah, I would like the simple ability of matching partial paths, not only full paths or file/directory names. The reason is that such constructs (like pictures\?-??-??) can pop-up on different partitions and/or different paths and a partial path match would make defining exclude rules and scheduled backups easier. Constructs like "\\maps\\*.bmp" (note the double backslash) would exclude only the bmp files that are in a subdirectory (any depth level) of "maps" or inside "maps" directly. That'd be nice too.

All this is easy to implement (i'm a dev myself) and would really be a neat and useful feature (hint: take a look at XML's XPath language for more details although i'm sure that the devs got the idea).

Like I was saying in the first post, It would be nice to have other advanced file excluding and/or including features based on file/dir modification, creation or access time, file size or regexp matching. Other goodies are of course welcome

Thanks again.