Reparse Point details

[Beeker]

If the option to "Ignore reparse points in directories" in Tools: Options: Engine is un-checked, what should the behavior be?

Should Reflector copy the content those reparse points reference as normal files and folder? Or should it copy them as reparse points? And if it copies them as reparse points, are there some possible ramifications of that? Like, will the reparse point in the backup point to the live data?

I'm not that familiar with reparse points. I think junctions may be a type of reparse point and I think they may be a feature specific to NTFS. I'm not sure what all can be done with them, but I see the newer Windows Store / "Modern" apps seem to use them for "Application Aliases".

Currently I'm using the default behavior of ignoring them and I'd really like to get the daily messages about ignoring them out of the log so I can spot any errors, if they ever crop up.

Thanks in advance for insights! And a special thanks to Luis for the extraordinary gifts of Backup and Reflector and the many years of support!

[cobian]

They will be copied as files. No reparse point will be created at the destination.

The reason this is unchecked as default is because sometimes this causes an infinit recursion if the source contains a reparse point pointing to another directory that is also part of the source.

[Beeker]

After a bit more research, I find the default behavior is exactly what I need.

Is there any way to keep those warnings out of the log? They clutter the log for every Windows OS drive backup and make it harder to spot real errors and warnings.

[cobian]

There is no way at this moment. This is not marked as an error (ERR) anyway.

[paulkaye]

Luis, would you mind giving me a bit more info on this? I'm trying to make a 100% identical, non-compressed backup of an important directory. I notice that only 20334 of 22331 files, and 1987 of 2045 files were copied into the backup. Shadow Copy is on. Looking at the log I see that an important subdirectory called Admin was ignored. The log says:

Ignoring the directory "C:\Users\Paul\OneDrive - [redacted]\Admin". Reason: the directory is a reparse point.

This may be the primary (or even only) reason for the discrepancy. What I don't understand is why this subdirectory is being treated differently to the others. As far as I know there is nothing special about it at all. Currently the "ignore reparse points in directories" option is checked (which I understand is the default behavior). Does this mean that, if Cobian Reflector identifies the directory as a reparse point, it will simply not copy it into the archive? Does unchecking the box cause Reflector to simply copy the directory irrespective of whether Cobian thinks it's a reparse point?

-Paul

[cobian]

Yes, it is ignoring the directory because it's a rapairse point. Uncheck this option in order to include it.