Ignore warnings when file missing between scan and backup

ulicky · February 28, 2026, 11:28am

Hi,

running backup of directory, which is data folder from mail server.

It is natural, that files are created and deleted as users works with email.

I dont need snapshot or consistency of folder for backup.

When file missing during scan and actual backup of Duplicati, there is warning and errors.

I tired to exclude files where it happens using filters - but it doesnt help:

-/dockerhost/var/lib/docker/volumes/mail_data/_data/store/mail/[^/]/[^/]/.journal.db-(shm|wal)$
-/dockerhost/var/lib/docker/volumes/mail_data/_data/store/mail/.*/indexlog.fld$

Still getting those:

LimitedMessages: [
2026-02-27 22:30:07 +01 - [Information-Duplicati.Library.Main.Controller-StartingOperation]: The operation Backup has started,
2026-02-27 22:36:41 +01 - [Information-Duplicati.Library.Main.BasicResults-BackendEvent]: Backend event: List - Started: (),
2026-02-27 22:36:43 +01 - [Information-Duplicati.Library.Main.BasicResults-BackendEvent]: Backend event: List - Completed: (808 bytes),
2026-02-27 22:43:23 +01 - [Information-Duplicati.Library.Main.BasicResults-BackendEvent]: Backend event: Put - Started: MailServer_Daily-bafe614c5397a4e8783cfc033bb3f9b5e.dblock.zip.aes (23.10 MiB),
2026-02-27 22:43:29 +01 - [Information-Duplicati.Library.Main.BasicResults-BackendEvent]: Backend event: Put - Completed: MailServer_Daily-bafe614c5397a4e8783cfc033bb3f9b5e.dblock.zip.aes (23.10 MiB),
2026-02-27 22:43:29 +01 - [Information-Duplicati.Library.Main.BasicResults-BackendEvent]: Backend event: Put - Started: MailServer_Daily-i00cc61edf1214d8097cdffdf93ca22df.dindex.zip.aes (108.14 KiB),
2026-02-27 22:43:29 +01 - [Information-Duplicati.Library.Main.BasicResults-BackendEvent]: Backend event: Put - Completed: MailServer_Daily-i00cc61edf1214d8097cdffdf93ca22df.dindex.zip.aes (108.14 KiB),
2026-02-27 22:44:05 +01 - [Information-Duplicati.Library.Main.BasicResults-BackendEvent]: Backend event: Put - Started: MailServer_Daily-20260227T213008Z.dlist.zip.aes (6.83 MiB),
2026-02-27 22:44:07 +01 - [Information-Duplicati.Library.Main.BasicResults-BackendEvent]: Backend event: Put - Completed: MailServer_Daily-20260227T213008Z.dlist.zip.aes (6.83 MiB),
2026-02-27 22:44:07 +01 - [Information-Duplicati.Library.Main.Operation.DeleteHandler:RetentionPolicy-StartCheck]: Start checking if backups can be removed, …
]
LimitedWarnings: [
2026-02-27 22:37:44 +01 - [Warning-Duplicati.Library.Main.Operation.Backup.FilePreFilterProcess.FileEntry-PathNotFound]: Excluding path due to path not found: /dockerhost/var/lib/docker/volumes/mail_data/_data/store/mail/data/.journal.db-shm
FileNotFoundException: Could not find file ‘/dockerhost/var/lib/docker/volumes/mail_data/_data/store/mail/data/.journal.db-shm’.,
2026-02-27 22:37:44 +01 - [Warning-Duplicati.Library.Main.Operation.Backup.MetadataGenerator.Metadata-MetadataProcessFailed]: Failed to process metadata on “/dockerhost/var/lib/docker/volumes/mail_data/_data/store/mail/data/.journal.db-shm”, storing empty metadata
FileAccesException: Unable to access the file “/dockerhost/var/lib/docker/volumes/mail_data/_data/store/mail/data/.journal.db-shm” with method llistxattr, error: ENOENT (2),
2026-02-27 22:37:44 +01 - [Warning-Duplicati.Library.Main.Operation.Backup.FilePreFilterProcess.FileEntry-PathNotFound]: Excluding path due to path not found: /dockerhost/var/lib/docker/volumes/mail_data/_data/store/mail/data/.journal.db-wal
FileNotFoundException: Could not find file ‘/dockerhost/var/lib/docker/volumes/mail_data/_data/store/mail/data/.journal.db-wal’.,
2026-02-27 22:37:44 +01 - [Warning-Duplicati.Library.Main.Operation.Backup.MetadataGenerator.Metadata-MetadataProcessFailed]: Failed to process metadata on “/dockerhost/var/lib/docker/volumes/mail_data/_data/store/mail/data/.journal.db-wal”, storing empty metadata
FileAccesException: Unable to access the file “/dockerhost/var/lib/docker/volumes/mail_data/_data/store/mail/data/.journal.db-wal” with method llistxattr, error: ENOENT (2),
2026-02-27 22:37:44 +01 - [Warning-Duplicati.Library.Main.Operation.Backup.FileBlockProcessor.FileEntry-PathNotFound]: Excluding path due to path not found: /dockerhost/var/lib/docker/volumes/mail_data/_data/store/mail/data/.journal.db-shm
FileNotFoundException: Could not find file ‘/dockerhost/var/lib/docker/volumes/mail_data/_data/store/mail/data/.journal.db-shm’.,
2026-02-27 22:37:44 +01 - [Warning-Duplicati.Library.Main.Operation.Backup.FileBlockProcessor.FileEntry-PathNotFound]: Excluding path due to path not found: /dockerhost/var/lib/docker/volumes/mail_data/_data/store/mail/data/.journal.db-wal
FileNotFoundException: Could not find file ‘/dockerhost/var/lib/docker/volumes/mail_data/_data/store/mail/data/.journal.db-wal’.
]

ts678 · March 2, 2026, 12:09am

Welcome to the forum @ulicky

I think the warning ID is the right part between dash and the right bracket.

But you may also suppress warnings you want, so I suggest another plan.

Filters in Duplicati
Regular expressions
.NET regular expressions

The forum took some of your input for itself. What you actually typed was:

\-/dockerhost/var/lib/docker/volumes/mail_data/\_data/store/mail/\[^/\]*/\[^/\]*/.journal.db-(shm|wal)$
-/dockerhost/var/lib/docker/volumes/mail_data/\_data/store/mail/.\*/indexlog.fld$

I’m putting a three-backtick line above and below, but single backtick before and after also works to make the forum show what you typed, with no interpretation.

Things that look odd in the above are:

Possible harm

No opening square brace, which is how Duplicati uses regular expression.
Character class with closing square brace character-escaped into a literal.
Dollar sign at the end. The regular expression is already anchored for you.

Safe (or close)

Initial backslash on first line.
Literal periods not escaped.
Escaped underscore character.

Above is for first line. I don’t know what second line is aiming at, but /.\*/ is a suspicious additional concern. Usually asterisk is repetitions, but here it’s literal.

My usual regex tester seems gone, but I asked Google, and just tried regex101.

Google query: net regex tester with explanations

For actual testing in Duplicati, it’s often easiest to feed the regex small test data.
Alternatively there’s The TEST-FILTERS command, but shell may also interpret.
Single quotes will usually avoid that. Option name is--exclude so not a minus.