Include specific folders of excluded folder

[dgraziotin]

I defined a simple backup with source /Users/daniel.

I want to exclude backing up /Users/daniel/Library
But I want to backup /Users/daniel/Library/Mobile Documents/ and /Users/daniel/Library/Application Support/.

I thought that the following would achieve this but I am likely using it wrong.

/Users/daniel/Library/
+ /Users/daniel/Library/Mobile Documents/
+ /Users/daniel/Library/Application Support

(I also tried ! /Users/daniel/Library/)

[goebbe]

@dgraziotin
It seems that you want to use a combination of "excludes" and "includes".
This is possible, however, you have to use --pattern or --patterns-from options, via Vorta > Schedule > Shell Commands > Extra arguments for borg create.

You can find examples on how-to use both options here: #1991

The following "Extra arguments for borg" should work for your case:
--pattern=+ Users/daniel/Library/Mobile Documents/ --pattern=+ re:Users/daniel/Library/Application\sSupport --pattern=- Users/daniel/Library/**/.*
When using --pattern (as a command line option), keep in mind that matching special characters can be tricky.

If you have many or complicated patterns, it is likely better to use --patterns-from to point to a text-file with the patterns: #1991 (comment)

Order matters! Always start with include "+" patterns, then specify exclude "-" patterns.
Do not use the use "!" for excluding folders, when you want to include something from these folders.

[dgraziotin]

macOS 15.0, Vorta (and Borg) installed via homebrew, all latest versions.

[goebbe]

O.k. apparently we ran into an issue/inconsistency with borgbackup, here.
I tried to reproduce on Linux - and also had trouble matching a folder with a space in its name, using --pattern.
My folder was named test folder

• Putting the file path into quotation marks (single or double) did not work.
• Escaping the space with \ did not work.
• Replacing the space with \s did not work either, using the standard sh: matcher.

The following worked for me. Note, however, that I had to use the "re:" matcher for regular expressions, in order to replace the single space by \s, here:
--pattern=+re:home/user/test\sfolder

In many cases, it may be sufficient to replace the space by ?. However, this may also match other names, since ? matches any single letter: --pattern=+home/user/test?sfolder matches test folder but would also match testAfolder or test2folder and so on.

I opened an issue for borg: borgbackup/borg#8578

Note: When using --patterns-from with a pattern file, it is possible to match as follows:
+home/user/test folder
However, this does not work using --pattern on the command line.

[goebbe]

Only --pattern=+Users/daniel/Library/Mobile\sDocuments seems to work

I just tested this on Linux: While I did not get an error message when simply replacing the space by \s - the pattern does not seem to actually match the folder.
Did you check if the files/folders have actually been included in your backup?

[dgraziotin]

Yes, apologies. I took the lack of errors as a sign that it worked. In fact, it did not. I will now test --patterns-from and report in the Borg issue.

[goebbe]

I opened a Vorta issue: #2164
As a workaround, the following command-line options work to match names with white space to include items using Vorta:
--pattern=+re:home/user/test\sfolder
or
--pattern=+home/user/test?folder

[goebbe]

In Vorta (version 0.10.2 and earlier) there is an issue concerning the match of items names that contain whitespace.
This issue only appears with command line options and is already fixed in the repository.

In future version of Vorta, in "Extra arguments for borg" the standard borg syntax should work to match names with whitespace.

Example for patterns to "include" an item with name test folder:

--pattern=+subdir/test\ folder
'--pattern=+subdir/test folder'
--pattern='-+ubdir/test folder'