Folder not excluded

Support
1

Hi!
I’ve got a problem with my backup config : even if I unselect it, it is included in the backup process.
I’ve got this in the filters section of the JSON:

  {
    "Order": 1,
    "Include": false,
    "Expression": "%HOME%/:::::::::::::::  excluded/"
  },

But it’s backed up.
Any hint please?

2

Hi @smallla, welcome to the forum :waving_hand:

I assume it is redacted in some way. Can you try to manually replace %HOME% with the real path in case this is causing issues?, so it becomes something like:

"Expression" : "/home/user/:::excluded/"
3

I just tried, but when I import the file, I have to go through the process of validating each step again, and I think it overwrites my changes, so… nothing changes, this folder is still backed up.

4

If I rename this folder to “excluded” (without the dots and the space) and I unselect it in the config, everything is working as expected.
So it’s a problem with the name. Some caracters are not escaped properly, I presume.

5

So, no one cares about this bug?

6

Not sure why you need to import anything to edit the filters?

I realize the actual name may be sensitive, but can you give an example folder name where excludes do not work?

7

The one I specified here:

8

I found the issue. Generally the : character is used as a path separator. So you can have something like:

export PATH=/tmp:/home/user:/bin/

This means that for some tools you cannot use them if you have a : in the folder name, so generally it is not a good idea to do so, even if it is technically possible.

For Duplicati, this is a similar issue where the filters can be passed with “multiple in one string”, and this is split on the : separator. I will see if we can work around it in some places, because not all inputs rely on multi-string filters, but generally I would recommend not using : in file or folder names.

9

Thanks for your research!
If it’s possible to use “:” in filenames, people will use it, even if every dev doesn’t recommend it, so better fix it, don’t you think?