Backup exclude filter for directories and auto shutdown requested

[robert2098]

Hi,

I’m happily using PA2009 Beta 5 Pro and I’m using the backup feature to backup my important files. It works great but I want to request an exclude filter for directories (currently only files can be excluded).

I need this because as a programmer, I’m developing C++/C# applications. When compiling, lots of temporary files are created in debug/release sub-directories. Of course I don’t need these (big) files to be included in the backup. Now I have to make exclude filters for all the separate files like *.o, *.pdb, etc. Just excluding all debug/release directories is much easier. Besides, I can’t make an exclude filter for all files like *.dll because I only want to exclude those from the debug/release directories and not those at other locations.

Further it would be nice to have an auto shutdown feature, that shuts the computer down after the backup is finished. Then I can just start the backup and leave after a work day.

Thanks.

Robert

[spwolf]

You can exclude folders, it was added by request via email (yours?). :-). I believe we explained how in the help, if not, let me know. That feature needs some testing too

[robert2098]

@spwolf:

You can exclude folders, it was added by request via email (yours?). :-). I believe we explained how in the help, if not, let me know. That feature needs some testing too

That must have been someone else.
The help file does not explain the filters. The help file only says this about the filters:

“Filters” - advanced users can select filters to be used on folders added to the list. Please understand that backup filters work only on contents of the folders that you selected and not on files you specifically selected. This option is not required and you can proceed without setting it up.

Is there some special syntax required to exclude directories? When I add “Debug” and “Release” to the exclude filters, it still includes those directories.

Oh, it seems only the syntax “.ext" works in the exclude filters. Syntax like “file???.ext”, "file.” or a specific file like “file.ext” do still include the matching files.

Regards,

Robert

[spwolf]

@robert2098:

That must have been someone else.
The help file does not explain the filters. The help file only says this about the filters:

Is there some special syntax required to exclude directories? When I add “Debug” and “Release” to the exclude filters, it still includes those directories.

Oh, it seems only the syntax “.ext" works in the exclude filters. Syntax like “file???.ext”, "file.” or a specific file like “file.ext” do still include the matching files.

Regards,

Robert

you need to use “” to indentify folders…

so it would be “\Debug*” I believe, check it out and let us know… thanks!

[robert2098]

@spwolf:

you need to use “” to indentify folders…

so it would be “\Debug*” I believe, check it out and let us know… thanks!

Thanks for the answer but it doesn’t work for me. I tried serveral forms with a slash:
"\Debug"
"\Debug*"
"\Debug*"
"\Debug*."
“Debug”
“Debug*”
"Debug"

but none of them work

Robert

[spwolf]

\Debug should have worked, will check it on our side….

[spwolf]

Please try with final pre-release version:
http://www.powerarchiver.com/test/re…arc1100rc5.exe

And let us know if this has been improved right away.

[spwolf]

it is debug* btw…

[robert2098]

@spwolf:

Please try with final pre-release version:
http://www.powerarchiver.com/test/re…arc1100rc5.exe

If I click on the link I come to the page where I can only download RC1 instead of RC5. I tried to change the link manually to powarc1100rc5.exe but that doesn’t download the RC5 version.

Anyway in the meantime I tried the RC1 version with several variants of exclude directory syntax but it still doesn’t work for me :(. But I noticed that if I add “Debug*” as exclude filter, it first copies the whole lot to a temporary directory before archiving. But the Debug directories are still include in the backup.

Robert

[robert2098]

I found the correct link to RC5 in another thread so I tried it again. Started a new backup scrip and… it still doesn’t work for me

[spwolf]

without “” right?
It should work fine…

[robert2098]

Yes without the “”. Because you said it should work, I retried it and got the same problem Then I tried a simple test case with only 2 files and it worked The syntax “Directory” works so the * is not required. Hmmmm….

So I tried some more scenarios and it seems a curious problem that happens only when you set the exclude filters after you ran a backup without filters. Coincidentally that was how I did it all the time before.

First, it seems only to happen with 7zip compression. With zip compression I didn’t see the problem.

To reproduce the problem, make a 7zip compression backup script with a directory to backup but has no exclude filters and run it. It creates a backup of everything as expected.
Then go back (restarting PA en reopening the script makes no difference) and add an exclude filter for a sub-directory of the directory to backup. Then run the script again. Instead of compressing it right away, it first copies the complete directory with sub-directories to the user’s temp directory and then does a full backup. The exclude filter does not work!
Now, in Windows Explorer, delete the created backup file and rerun the script. Now it compresses the files directly without first copying it to the user’s temp directory and the exclude filters now suddenly work. Very strange, why does it not work when it has to overwrite a previous backup file

The odd thing is that if I add the directory exclude filter right from the beginning, it works. If I then change/remove/re-add exclude filters, it works as expected (without the need to delete the previous backup file first). But if I first run it without directory exclude filters and then add exclude filters after the first backup, I first need to remove the previous backup before it works.

B.T.W. I’m using Windows Vista. I did not have the chance yet to test this scenario on Windows XP so I don’t know yet if this is a Vista only problem.

Thanks for your replies. I at least now know how to circumvent the problem.

Robert

[spwolf]

robert - it is not overwriting backups! It is updating them. Thats why you get the behaviour you mentioned - it is indended. If you want unique backup each time, use the timestamp features…

thanks!

[robert2098]

Thanks. That explains it.
The same is indeed happening with the zip format, but in contrary to the solid 7zip format, the excluded files do not show up in the log window.

Many thanks.

Robert

[spwolf]

@robert2098:

Thanks. That explains it.
The same is indeed happening with the zip format, but in contrary to the solid 7zip format, the excluded files do not show up in the log window.

Many thanks.

Robert

yep, thats because solid archives cant be directly updated, but they need to be extracted first and then re-created… Thats why they get so much better compression though…

[spwolf]

closing this thread, if you find something else, open an bug report in tech support… wish granted!