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deucalion exclude

Manages the list of what is left out of your home folder's backup. Each entry is a pattern, such as Videos/ or *.iso.

$ deucalion exclude --help
usage: deucalion exclude [-h] [{list,add,remove,reset}] [patterns ...]

manage what is left out of your home backup

positional arguments:
  {list,add,remove,reset}
  patterns

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
Command What it does
deucalion exclude (or exclude list) Show the list.
deucalion exclude add PATTERN … Add patterns (one already there is ignored).
deucalion exclude remove PATTERN … Remove patterns. One that isn't in the list stops it: "Not in the exclusion list: …".
deucalion exclude reset Put back the default list; your own patterns are removed.

Every command prints the list afterwards. Put patterns in quotes, so the terminal doesn't expand * itself:

$ deucalion exclude add "Videos/" "*.iso"
  .cache/
  .thumbnails/
  .local/share/Trash/
  .local/share/recently-used.xbel
  .local/share/containers/
  .var/app/*/cache/
  .npm/_cacache/
  .config/**/Cache/
  .config/**/Code Cache/
  .config/**/GPUCache/
  .config/**/DawnCache/
  .config/**/DawnGraphiteCache/
  .config/**/DawnWebGPUCache/
  .config/**/GrShaderCache/
  .config/**/ShaderCache/
  .config/**/CacheStorage/
  .config/**/CachedData/
  .config/**/CachedExtensionVSIXs/
  Videos/
  *.iso

Leaving out something that is already backed up

The next full backup moves it from the backup to Removed Files (Gone/excluded in the plan):

$ deucalion backup --dry-run
Backing up to Alex Backup  /media/alex/Alex Backup/Deucalion-Backup
Saving the system recipe (packages, settings, services)…
Backup plan (full: everything)
  New files:               2   293.0 KB
  Changed files:           1   1.4 KB (previous versions go to _removed/)
  Gone/excluded:           2   333.8 MB (moved to _removed/)
  Unchanged:             645   156.7 MB
  Largest folders in this backup:
       86.0 MB          34 files  home/Pictures
       63.4 MB           3 files  home/Music
        5.8 MB         371 files  home/Deucalion
      875.1 KB          63 files  home/.local
      432.9 KB          11 files  home/Documents
      293.0 KB           1 files  extras/shared/scans
      120.3 KB          67 files  home/Projects
       81.3 KB          61 files  system/etc
       49.0 KB          13 files  system/packages
        4.8 KB           6 files  home (files)
        2.1 KB           5 files  home/.config
        2.0 KB           3 files  system/services
  Warnings (1):
    System settings (/etc, network) were not updated because administrator access was not used; the copy from an earlier backup is kept.
Dry run: nothing was copied. Add --details to list every file.

In a partial backup, a folder you name with --only that is excluded is skipped with a warning: "…: excluded by your exclusion rules; skipped."

Some folders are always left out and aren't in the list: Deucalion's own working folder (~/.local/state/deucalion/) and the undo folder (~/Deucalion-before-restore/).

The patterns apply to your home folder only. Extra folders have their own list, which can only be changed in the configuration file (excludes of each folder).

Exit codes

0 done; 1 a pattern to remove wasn't in the list.