[rdiff-backup-users] Excluding special files, but not symlinks

[Robert Shaw]

Hi Ben,

The option to exclude special files is very useful. However, I would 
prefer that it not exclude symbolic links, only sockets, devices, and 
fifos. I personally don't consider a symlink to be a "special" file, 
and I often want to backup these links (but not all the sockets and 
other special files). There is no easy way to do this with the current 
options.

So to solve the problem I made a small patch that adds an 
"--exclude-special-non-link-files" option to do this. I don't know if 
this is the best approach, but it's at least a compatible approach for 
existing users. I would prefer that the "--exclude-special-files" 
option not exclude symlinks, and that there be a new option for 
excluding just symlinks, but that would change behavior for existing 
users expecting the symlinks to not be backed up. You can decide how to 
properly address this. If you want a patch that changes is that way, I 
can send one.

Take it for what it's worth, but it's useful to me at least, and maybe 
to others.

Thanks!
-Robert

patch-exclude-special-non-link-files
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