WISHLIST: .gitignore format

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elikso
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Sep 19, 2024 11:18 am

WISHLIST: .gitignore format

Post by elikso »

Hi!

I've searched this forum but didn't find anything regarding this topic, so I just want to propose Backup4All team to parse .gitignore format and use it for exclusion filters.

Yes, I'm understand that github and other cloud repo platforms already exist :) But in my case I need to backup BOTH to my "usual" backup destination and to github. Don't ask why :)

So, the proposal is next: if .gitignore file is found in some dir, parse it and use it as exclusion filter for this dir and below. If the next .gitignore is found on some level below, add its rules from this level too.

I ALMOST achieve the same result by manually creating a ton of exclusion filters, but it's a lot of work, and it's error-prone. For the moment being, it's not easy to recreate all of .gitignore syntax in Backup4All:

*.exe
This is easy, OK

Build/*
This one is easy too

SourceArt/**/*.png
Here is the first problem: it's not just "*.png", but "SourceArt/**/*.png" (so I need to include PNG from all my repos, but exclude PNG ONLY from SourceArt and all folders below).

!Build/**/*.ico
Here is the second problem: I need to ignore "Build/*" (see above) but still include ICO files in "Build" and below.

Plugins/**/Intermediate/*
This one is tricky too: I need to exclude all "Intermediate" folders (at all levels) from "Plugins".

And so on.

So could you guys please consider this to be implemented? I understand it's a lot of work, but I hope you'd be interested at some point.

Thanks!
Last edited by elikso on Mon Nov 04, 2024 2:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Adrian (Softland)
Posts: 1948
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:46 pm

Re: WISHLIST: .gitignore format

Post by Adrian (Softland) »

Hi,

First, you can create the global filters which you want to be applied in multiple places. You can do that from File->Options->Filters.

In Backup Properties->Filters->Customize, you can add a filter for a specific folder and its subfolders.
That has to be made on each "root" folder you want to apply a filter defined in Options. Just select "Use an existing filter".
Do you know you can monitor your backups remotely with Backup4all Monitor? You can read more here: https://www.backup4all.com/backup4all-monitor.html

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