Re: [rdiff-backup-users] Include/Exclude advice

[Mike Fleetwood]

On 23 June 2017 at 11:15, Ron Leach <address@hidden> wrote:
> List, good morning,
>
> We use rdiff-backup to regularly backup our debian file-server, and we
> wanted to additionally run a partial backup - into the same backup directory
> - much more frequently for the more-volatile files (all the files in our
> current projects).  But when following the example from
> http://www.nongnu.org/rdiff-backup/examples.html
>
> rdiff-backup --include /srv/files/currentprojects --exclude '**' /srv/files
> /backup-location
>
> rdiff-backup also seemed to make increments of all the other files in the
> *other* directories under /srv/files.  I didn't expect this - I had thought
> that the example I used would exclude all the directories below /srv/files
> other than /srv/files/currentprojects .
>
> I've read the man page especially the FILE SELECTION section, but I think I
> have misunderstood the file include and exclude options, or misunderstood
> the example.  I admit that I didn't find the man page easy to follow.
>
> Is it possible to backup:
> - only /srv/files/currentprojects,
> - into the same backup directory that our full backup of /srv/files is
> stored,
> - with the intention that the currentprojects directory is backed-up much
> more frequently
> - but would still be restored if ever a complete restoration of /srv/files
> were needed?
>
> Grateful for any comment or advice,
>
> regards, Ron

I am no expert, but you experience coincides with my expectation that;
backing up part of a directory tree to an rdiff-backup repository is
implicitly saying all the excluded files have been removed so
rdiff-backup records them as being deleted in the repository.

I would say it is impossible to achieve what you want.  I suggest that
you will have to do something like this:

daily : rdiff-backup --exclude /srv/files/currentprojects /srv/files
/backup-location-1
hourly: rdiff-backup /srv/files/currentprojects /backup-location-2

and restore from both repositories when needed.

Mike