Using the Exclude Preference Pane

The exclude list is available for each backup set you use. You must check the "Use exclude list" check box to edit the list and enable the exclusions for the backups. The list items now apply to all files and folders listed in the main backuplist+ window.

Drag and Drop files and folders into the exclude list window

You can exclude certain folders and files from your backup session by adding them to the exclude list. They must be added as exclude patterns. If you don't want to enter them yourself you can just drag and drop folders and files onto the list and backuplist+ will create the correct exclude pattern to use. Each item needs to be on a separate line and you should avoid extra spaces between lines.

Options:

Exclude list for backup set....

Check this box to tell backuplist+ to exclude the list items from being copied to the destination.

Delete Excluded

Checking this box will cause any items on the destination that are listed in the exclude list to be deleted, even if they already exist there prior to backup.

Exclude Patterns

You can learn about exclude patterns from the rsync man page. Basically the exclude patterns are UNIX paths that begin at the root of transfer. Do not write your own unless you know what you are doing. Backuplist+ does this for you via drag and drop!

If you are backing up /Users/Home folder/Documents and want to exclude a folder in Documents called "Taxes" you would enter simply

/Documents/Taxes

If you want to exclude a folder called "Federal" within "Taxes" you would enter

/Documents/Taxes/Federal

These paths begin at the root which is the Documents folder. The asterisk * is called a wild card and means anything after the "Federal" directory is also excluded.

If you include the last slash before the asterisk, it will exclude everything inside the folder but not the folder itself.

/Documents/Taxes/Federal/

There is a lot more to exclude patterns. You can exclude any type of file with a certain name or extension. If you want to exclude any .jpg image from the Federal folder, you would put another asterisk before the".jpg" This would exclude file ending in .jpg since the wild card (asterisk) allows for any characters that come before, such as "Taxes/ Federal/taxfile.jpg"

/Documents/Taxes/Federal/*.jpg

If you just drag the files into the list, the excluded files will be specific to your backup source folders. To globally exclude files such as .jpg or hidden .DS_Store files, just add an asterisk before their name in the exclude list:

*.jpg

*.png

*.DS_Store