CobianSoft

Using the old Cobian still - but I just discovered the new kid on the block is Reflector.

I don’t think you could do this in the original version 11, but I want to filter all content in a particular named folder, but there are multiple subfolders that this should apply to on different paths. It needs to be inclusion and exclusion based. My "Use Case" is for Unreal development. And now we are at UE5 and there is of course version control solutions such as Perforce, but they are only really useful for Games Development houses, for many the cost is prohibitive.

So back to the backup scenario, we might have
c:\unrealproject\Content\Megascans\*.*
c:\new_unrealproject\Content\Megascans\*.*
c:\previous_version_unrealproject\Content\Megascans\*.*

With this example Megascans folders can be huge, and full of redundant files, that is a master copy exists elsewhere on the disk.
I would preferably have one incremental backup job for the master directory
and any jobs with projects in the target directory (..\Documents\projects for instance) would have the Megascans subfolders excluded.

Unreal Dev is not the only time, I have had this type of "use case" come up many times over the years and constantly toyed with making my own backup solution. But I don’t have the time to reinvent the wheel. But you seem quite pro-active at least on the forum. So, I am hopeful that you and your users will see the advantages in this form of filter.

Anyway, thanks for your time, and good luck with Reflector.

Try with *\Content\Megascans\* and (if you want) select Ignore empty directories for your task.

I have the same problem with excluding .git folders

I have tried various versions of

*\^\.git$\*

as mask or regex without success.
Any help is appreciated.

Craig

*\.git\*

That was something I tried as mask and regex.
Verified that it does not work.
The .git folder is still backed up.

Craig

Works for me as a mask. The directories are created but empty.

re: your results
- do you have "ignore empty directories" checked?
I do and get folder and files.

I created a new folder "bob" with content and the mask *\bob\*
The folder was not backed up.

I created a new folder ".bob" with content and the mask *\.bob\*
While observing the populating of the destination directory, the .bob folder is created but is later deleted before the backup process is complete. I think without content, but have not fully tested to be 100% confident.
I did not see this folder created for the "bob" folder.

I will create a script to delete the .git folder as a post-backup event.

I am using Windows 10 Home v10.0.19044

Regards,
Craig

In both cases the directories are created and then deleted if nothing is contained in them. Activate the verbose mode and you will see it in both cases.