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doc: Improve docs for --files-from et al

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Leo R. Lundgren 2021-03-06 17:31:56 +01:00
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doc/040_backup.rst
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@ -315,42 +315,48 @@ Including Files
***************
The options ``--files-from``, ``--files-from-verbatim`` and ``--files-from-raw``
allow you to list files that should be backed up in a file, rather than on the
command line. This is useful when a lot of files have to be backed up that are
not in the same folder.
allow you to give restic a file containing lists of file patterns or paths to
be backed up. This is useful e.g. when you want to back up files from many
different locations, or when you use some other software to generate the list
of files to back up.
The argument passed to ``--files-from`` must be the name of a text file that
contains one pattern per line. The file must be encoded as UTF-8, or UTF-16
contains one *pattern* per line. The file must be encoded as UTF-8, or UTF-16
with a byte-order mark. Leading and trailing whitespace is removed from the
patterns. Empty lines and lines starting with a ``#`` are ignored.
The patterns are expanded, when the file is read, by the Go function
`filepath.Glob <https://golang.org/pkg/path/filepath/#Glob>`__.
patterns. Empty lines and lines starting with a ``#`` are ignored and each
pattern is expanded when read, such that special characters in it are expanded
using the Go function `filepath.Glob <https://golang.org/pkg/path/filepath/#Glob>`__
- please see its documentation for the syntax you can use in the patterns.
The option ``--files-from-verbatim`` has the same behavior as ``--files-from``,
except that it contains literal filenames. It does expand patterns; filenames
are listed verbatim. Lines starting with a ``#`` are not ignored; leading and
trailing whitespace is not trimmed off. Empty lines are still allowed, so that
files can be grouped.
The argument passed to ``--files-from-verbatim`` must be the name of a text file
that contains one *path* per line, e.g. as generated by GNU ``find`` with the
``-print`` flag. Unlike ``--files-from``, ``--files-from-verbatim`` does not
expand any special characters in the list of paths, does not strip off any
whitespace and does not ignore lines starting with a ``#``. This option simply
reads and uses each line as-is, although empty lines are still ignored. Use this
option when you want to backup a list of filenames containing the special
characters that would otherwise be expanded when using ``--files-from``.
``--files-from-raw`` is a third variant that requires filenames to be terminated
by a zero byte (the NUL character), so that it can even handle filenames that
contain newlines or are not encoded as UTF-8 (except on Windows, where the
listed filenames must still be encoded in UTF-8).
The ``--files-from-raw`` option is a variant of ``--files-from-verbatim`` that
requires each line in the file to be terminated by an ASCII NUL character (the
``\0`` zero byte) instead of a newline, so that it can even handle file paths
containing newlines in their name or are not encoded as UTF-8 (except on
Windows, where the listed filenames must still be encoded in UTF-8. This option
is the safest choice when generating the list of filenames from a script (e.g.
GNU ``find`` with the ``-print0`` flag).
This option is the safest choice when generating filename lists from a script.
Its file format is the output format generated by GNU find's ``-print0`` option.
All three options interpret the argument ``-`` as standard input and will read
the list of files/patterns from there instead of a text file.
All three arguments interpret the argument ``-`` as standard input.
In all cases, paths may be absolute or relative to ``restic backup``'s
working directory.
In all cases, paths may be absolute or relative to ``restic backup``'s working
directory.
For example, maybe you want to backup files which have a name that matches a
certain regular expression pattern (uses GNU find):
certain regular expression pattern (uses GNU ``find``):
.. code-block:: console
$ find /tmp/somefiles -regex PATTERN -print0 > /tmp/files_to_backup
$ find /tmp/some_folder -regex PATTERN -print0 > /tmp/files_to_backup
You can then use restic to backup the filtered files: