Remove all files and folders except a directory from a particular archive

[blueray453]

I want to remove all files and folders except /media/ismail/8TBRaid0/_BusinessAnalytics/ from archive backup-2023-01-01

I checked #686 and the command I came up with is:

borg recreate --patterns-from patterns.txt --dry-run  --list --verbose /path/to/repo::backup-2023-01-01

The patterns.txt file looks like:

P sh
R /media/ismail/8TBRaid0
R /media/ismail/SSDWorking
+ /media/ismail/8TBRaid0/_BusinessAnalytics
- *

Is it right or am i missing something.

[ThomasWaldmann]

Use borg list REPO::ARCHIVE to see what the paths look like, so you can make up matching patterns (don't use a leading slash in the include/exclude patterns).

Then dry-run recreate and you'll see whether it works. If it doesn't, also check the patterns doc page.

[blueray453]

The archive was created using:

P sh
R media/ismail/8TBRaid0
R media/ismail/SSDWorking

Other than the leading slash, does the patterns.txt file look right?

[ThomasWaldmann]

Ehrm, for the R (root paths), you need to give a valid path. Using a relative path there might work if the cwd is right (in your case cwd == /, I guess), but giving an absolute path there is less prone to break.

The patterns file might be right with the leading slash removed, just try it with --list --dry-run.

[blueray453]

Thank you very much.

[ThomasWaldmann]

Hmm, maybe you need to also match the tail of the paths, using * or ** (depending on the pattern style).

Otherwise it might only keep the 1 directory object that matches the given path, but not any file inside that directory.

[blueray453]

Here is the pattern file:

P sh

R media/ismail/8TBRaid0
R media/ismail/SSDWorking
+ media/ismail/8TBRaid0/_BusinessAnalytics/**
- *

When i run:

borg recreate --patterns-from /media/ismail/WDPurple8TB/patterns-clean.lst --dry-run --list /media/ismail/WDPurple8TB/8TBRaid0_Backup::SafeX &> files.txt

It gives me:

x media/ismail/8TBRaid0/_BusinessAnalysisRequirementGathering/
- media/ismail/8TBRaid0/_BusinessAnalytics/.../playlist.m3u

https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/usage/create.html says:

‘-’ = dry run, item was not backed up

‘x’ = excluded, item was not backed up

In the context of recreate what does x and - mean?

[ThomasWaldmann]

They mean exactly what the docs say. In other words:

you don't want to see x for items you did not intend to exclude - check that.

- (item was not backed up) is expected for included items because you did a dry-run (which does not really back up anything).

[blueray453]

It ran successfully. Thank you very much.