Cannot exclude package

[caffenero]

Hi,

I'm trying to tell super duper to exclude Adobe Lightroom previews data when doing full backups.

On OSX, they're stored under a single package directory and ALWAYS named as "XXXX Previews.lrdata"

Where XXXX is the name of the Lightroom catalog.

Anyway, a simple "exclude all packages called YYYY.lrdata" would do. I cannot make Super Duper ignore ' em.

This is what I tried:

1) Modify the backup all script, save as new custom script
2) Edit the commands section, tried all these lines (one at a time of course):

IGNORE *.lrdata
IGNORE */*.lrdata
IGNORE *.lrdata/

No way. The damn package gets copied every time...

Could you help me please?

Thanks,

Ale

[dnanian]

Did you send this to me separately through the support email address, Ale? Because I replied to that message...

Anyway, what's likely here is that you haven't specified the folder where the data is. Where are the .lrdata packages? Are they in /Users/your-account/Pictures/Lightroom?

[caffenero]

Did you send this to me separately through the support email address, Ale? Because I replied to that message...

Anyway, what's likely here is that you haven't specified the folder where the data is. Where are the .lrdata packages? Are they in /Users/your-account/Pictures/Lightroom?

Nope, this is the first message i'm writing to you... :) Anyway, as there can be multiple catalogs (so multiple XXXX Previews.lrdata packages) I'd like to be able to specify "exclude any package ending in .lrdata" anywhere, like I can do for regular files (e.g: exclude *.bak)

Is there a solution to this?

Thanks a lot!

[dnanian]

You can't say "ignore *.bak" and have it apply "everywhere". It only applies in the folder you specify. So -- where are these .lrdata packages?

[caffenero]

You can't say "ignore *.bak" and have it apply "everywhere". It only applies in the folder you specify. So -- where are these .lrdata packages?

Oh. I see. Those packages are all under the various catalogs, which are dicrectories. I could put a catalog everywhere, but all my catalogs are inside a single directory... I made a screenshot so you can see:

http://img.skitch.com/20090514-mjtt7qcib75yhm8fubphiq5fu9.png

incidentally, only one catalog has the .lrdata now as I cleared all the previews some time ago and only used the "main" catalog, but you get the point...

..so, you can't really say "exclude all .whatever files"? Huh. Anyway, anything will do, but please, don't tell me I have to exclude each single catalog previews by hand... :)

[dnanian]

Right, so the ignore would be

Users/Ale/Documents/Lightroom/Main/*/*.lrdata

[caffenero]

OK, that worked --with a minor modification, the root folder is not "Main", "Main" is just another catalog, but thanks.

I really like your software. However, I do think one should be able to exclude files by extension. As an end user, I HATE being forced to edit copy scripts by hand and resort to something like:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Class</key>
<string>Include</string>
<key>Description</key>
<string>Excludes Lightroom Previews.</string>
<key>Directives</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>Directive</key>
<string>exclude</string>
<key>Item</key>
<string>*.lrdata</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Directive</key>
<string>exclude</string>
<key>Item</key>
<string>*/*.lrdata</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Directive</key>
<string>exclude</string>
<key>Item</key>
<string>*/*/*.lrdata</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Directive</key>
<string>exclude</string>
<key>Item</key>
<string>*/*/*/*.lrdata</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Directive</key>
<string>exclude</string>
<key>Item</key>
<string>*/*/*/*/*.lrdata</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Directive</key>
<string>exclude</string>
<key>Item</key>
<string>*/*/*/*/*/*.lrdata</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Directive</key>
<string>exclude</string>
<key>Item</key>
<string>*/*/*/*/*/*/*.lrdata</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Directive</key>
<string>exclude</string>
<key>Item</key>
<string>*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*.lrdata</string>
</dict>
</array>
<key>Include Directives</key>
<array/>
</dict>
</plist>


I had to do it by hand because the command panel and its filesystem browser are really impractical when you need to use wildcards.

Moreover, if I try to save this script as a separate "Exclude LR Previews" and then include this script in my main backup script, SD hangs indefinitely on the "Copy Files" phase, with all counters remaining on "0". If I just use the path you suggested, everything works.

OK, that's it. Sorry for the rant and congratulations for a great piece of software.

[dnanian]

Hangs indefinitely? Not quite sure why that would be (although you wouldn't include this in your main script generally)...

[caffenero]

Hangs indefinitely? Not quite sure why that would be (although you wouldn't include this in your main script generally)...

Here, I made a movie for you:

http://caffenero.net/ScreenFlow.mov

:)

Anyway, I just bought your app. I admit I was using a pirated serial before just to see if this custom script thing really worked :)

[dnanian]

OK. It's not so much that it's hanging forever. It's that your particular glob expression is expanding to nearly every file in every folder everywhere on your drive. Doing that is going to take a long time.

If you did the same thing with

/Users/Ali/Documents/Lightroom/*.lrdata
/Users/Ali/Documents/Lightroom/*/*.lrdata

(etc) it would work properly.

Note, too -- don't copy Backup - all files and add your stuff to it. Instead, *include* it and then add your commands to the command tab (or include it and your exclude script). That way, if we improve/change "Backup - all files" in the future (something we've certainly done in the past) you will benefit from those changes.

[caffenero]

OK. It's not so much that it's hanging forever. It's that your particular glob expression is expanding to nearly every file in every folder everywhere on your drive. Doing that is going to take a long time.

If you did the same thing with

/Users/Ali/Documents/Lightroom/*.lrdata
/Users/Ali/Documents/Lightroom/*/*.lrdata

(etc) it would work properly.

Note, too -- don't copy Backup - all files and add your stuff to it. Instead, *include* it and then add your commands to the command tab (or include it and your exclude script). That way, if we improve/change "Backup - all files" in the future (something we've certainly done in the past) you will benefit from those changes.

OK, will do. Thanks for the tip -- and I still think you should add simple exclusion by extension ;)

You sir are the definition of customer care ;) Good luck from a fellow programmer and enthusiast SD user!