Using Include and Exclude Filters

By default, CrashPlan PRO backs up files in the user's home directory. In the path list/ directory fields on the Backup File Selection page, you can define specific files to include / exclude when backing up at an organization level.

In PRO Server, you have several ways of specifying what should be included / excluded in the backup set. You can:

• use substitution variables
• specify filename patterns using wildcards
• specify file extensions to exclude
• use regular expressions

Excluding previously selected files results in excluded files being deleted from the backup archive. The now-excluded files will not be available for restoring.

Instead of identifying each user folder by name, for example, you can use substitution variables.

:user/WorkFolder/
:movies

:user/WorkFolder/Private/

When CrashPlan PRO Client is installed on a client computer, the default org settings are pulled down and the substitution values are applied.

So on Joe's Mac the end result would be:

/User/Joe/WorkFolder/
/User/Joe/Movies/

/User/Joe/WorkFolder/Private/

And on Jill's Windows PC the end result would be:

C:/Documents and Settings/Jill/WorkFolder/
C:/Documents and Settings/Jill/My Movies/

C:/Documents and Settings/Jill/WorkFolder/Private/

Use these variables to specify the types of files or locations in the path list /directory fields. These variables are applied in the following situations:

• When the client is first installed
• When settings are published via the Default Client Settings
• When the client's settings are modified to include the variable

When the variable is applied, then the specific client's settings explicitly list the relevant files and folders and the variable is replaced.

In PRO Server, you can specify filename patterns to exclude by default for all users in an organization. From the organization's page, go to Default Client Settings > Backup File Selection > User Exclude Patterns. Use the Merge option if you don't want to replace the filename patterns that the user has already entered.

In PRO Client the user can specify filename patterns that CrashPlan should ignore in Settings > Backup > Filename patterns to exclude.

You can tell CrashPlan PRO to ignore types files by specifying the extension. For example, add “mp3” to the list to prevent all files ending with that suffix to be ignored when CrashPlan PRO identifies files for backup.

Regular expressions are much more powerful way of matching files to be excluded from backup. Each expression you provide is always matched against the absolute path of the file, which allows taking the parent directory into account when you exclude files.

Note: CrashPlan always uses '/' as the file separator character.

Here's an example: Consider the absolute path: /Users/Peter/Documents/examples/regex.txt. You could exclude the file with:

Regular expressions are extremely powerful and allow you to specify “match X but not if it includes Y”. How is this useful? Say you want any doc or rtf files backed up, regardless of where those files reside within the user's system. You could use the following regex under Admin File Exclusions to ensure all doc or rtf files are backed up:

(?i)^((?!(\.(doc|rtf)|.*/)$).)*$

When CrashPlan PRO scans files for backup, exclusions are accounted for last.

Files no longer selected for backup are removed from the backup archive the next time CrashPlan PRO performs archive maintenance and are NOT able to be restored. Deselected files are not the same as deleted files, so the “keep deleted files for X time” setting does not apply to them. As a result, the files in the deselected folder will be pruned from the backup archive.

You can remove a file from the backup selection by:

• deselecting the file or folder (or in the admin console)
• adding an exclusion regex that eliminates the file from backup set

The next time the archive is maintained the backups of those files will be removed from the archive.

• Regular Expressions Info and Tutorials
• Java Regex Lesson
• Java Pattern API
• Test your Java regular expressions online