Why are 'directory only' backups so hard?

[troyt]

There's got to be something I'm missing...

Let's say I've got one (and only one) directory I want a backup of. I don't want and entire system backup in that set, just the one folder.

So far, about the only way I've found to do it is to make a script that ignores everything in the root folder, then copy the one directory I want.

There's got to be a better way.

I'll agree that complete system backups are important, but it seems like a serious shortcoming of a backup package if you are limited to complete system backups...