Creating an Exclude List on a UNIX Client

If you create a /usr/openv/netbackup/exclude_list file on a UNIX client, NetBackup uses the contents of the file as a list of patterns to skip during automatic full and incremental backups.

The following types of files typically appear in an exclude list:

• *.o files
• core files
• a.out files
• Files prefixed or suffixed by ~ (backups for editors)
• Files and directories under /tmp, /usr/tmp
• Man pages
• Software that you can restore from original installation tapes
• Automounted directories
• CD-ROM file systems
• NetBackup automatically excludes the following file system types:
• mntfs (Solaris)
• proc (all UNIX platforms)
• cdrom (all UNIX platforms)
• cachefs (AIX, Solaris, SGI, UnixWare)

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  Note    VERITAS suggests that you always specify automounted directories and CD-ROM file systems in the exclude list. Otherwise, if they are not mounted at the time of a backup, NetBackup must wait for a timeout before proceeding.

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Check with users before excluding any files from their backups.

Syntax Rules

The following syntax rules apply to exclude lists:

• Blank lines or lines beginning with a pound sign (#) are ignored.
• Only one pattern per line is allowed.
• The following special or wildcard characters are recognized:

[ ]

?

*

{ }

• To use special or wildcard characters literally (that is, as non-wildcard characters), precede them with a backslash (\). For example, assume the brackets in the following are to be used literally

/home/abc/fun[ny]name

In the exclude list, precede them with a backslash as in

/home/abc/fun\[ny\]name

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  Note    A backslash (\) acts as an escape character only when it precedes a special or wildcard character as in the above example. This means that NetBackup normally interprets a backslash literally and it is a legal character to use in pathnames.

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• If you exclude all files in the backup selections list by using / or * or both symbols together (/*), NetBackup backs up only what is specified by full path names in the include list.
• Spaces are considered legal characters. Do not include extra spaces unless they are part of the file name.

For example, if you want to exclude a file named

/home/testfile (with no extra space character at the end)

and your exclude list entry is

/home/testfile (with an extra space character at the end)

NetBackup cannot find the file until you delete the extra space from the end of the file name.

• End a file path with / to exclude only directories with that path name (for example, /home/test/). If the pattern does not end in / (for example, /usr/test), NetBackup excludes both files and directories with that path name.
• To exclude all files with a given name, regardless of their directory path, just enter the name without a preceding slash. For example:

test 

rather than

/test

This is equivalent to prefixing the file pattern with

/

/*/

/*/*/

/*/*/*/

and so on.

• Do not use patterns with links in the names. For example, assume /home is a link to /usr/home and /home/doc is in the exclude list. The file is still backed up in this case because the actual directory path, /usr/home/doc, does not match the exclude list entry, /home/doc.

Example of an Exclude List

In this example, an exclude list contains the following entries:

# this is a comment line

/home/doe/john

/home/doe/abc/

/home/*/test

/*/temp

core

Given the exclude list above, the following files and directories are excluded from automatic backups:

• The file or directory named /home/doe/john.
• The directory /home/doe/abc (because the exclude entry ends with /).
• All files or directories named test that are two levels below home.
• All files or directories named temp that are two levels below the root directory.
• All files or directories named core at any level.

Exclude Lists for Specific Policies or Schedules

NetBackup allows you to create an exclude list for a specific policy or a policy and schedule combination. To do this, create an exclude_list file with a .policyname or .policyname.schedulename suffix. The following are two examples for a policy named wkstations that contains a schedule named fulls:

The first file affects all scheduled backups in the policy named wkstations. The second file affects backups only when the schedule is named fulls.

For a given backup, NetBackup uses a single exclude list---the list containing the most specific name. For example, if there are files named:

exclude_list.wkstations and exclude_list.wkstations.fulls

NetBackup uses only: