diff --git a/cmd/restic/exclude.go b/cmd/restic/exclude.go
index e4a934d9b..9d86f9892 100644
--- a/cmd/restic/exclude.go
+++ b/cmd/restic/exclude.go
@@ -185,6 +185,11 @@ func isDirExcludedByFile(dir, tagFilename, header string) bool {
 func gatherDevices(items []string) (deviceMap map[string]uint64, err error) {
 	deviceMap = make(map[string]uint64)
 	for _, item := range items {
+		item, err = filepath.Abs(filepath.Clean(item))
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+
 		fi, err := fs.Lstat(item)
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
@@ -215,6 +220,8 @@ func rejectByDevice(samples []string) (RejectFunc, error) {
 			return false
 		}
 
+		item = filepath.Clean(item)
+
 		id, err := fs.DeviceID(fi)
 		if err != nil {
 			// This should never happen because gatherDevices() would have
@@ -222,7 +229,7 @@ func rejectByDevice(samples []string) (RejectFunc, error) {
 			panic(err)
 		}
 
-		for dir := item; dir != ""; dir = filepath.Dir(dir) {
+		for dir := item; dir != filepath.Dir(dir); dir = filepath.Dir(dir) {
 			debug.Log("item %v, test dir %v", item, dir)
 
 			allowedID, ok := allowed[dir]
diff --git a/cmd/restic/excludes b/cmd/restic/excludes
deleted file mode 100644
index ab2f4fd31..000000000
--- a/cmd/restic/excludes
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,31 +0,0 @@
-/boot
-/dev
-/etc
-/home
-/lost+found
-/mnt
-/proc
-/root
-/run
-/sys
-/tmp
-/usr
-/var
-/opt/android-sdk
-/opt/bullet
-/opt/dex2jar
-/opt/jameica
-/opt/google
-/opt/JDownloader
-/opt/JDownloaderScripts
-/opt/opencascade
-/opt/vagrant
-/opt/visual-studio-code
-/opt/vtk6
-/bin
-/fonts*
-/srv/ftp
-/srv/http
-/sbin
-/lib
-/lib64