Re: [Duplicity-talk] Problem with --exclude-if-present in version 0.7.10

[Aaron]

Hello Richard,

On 2016-08-29 09:50, Richard via Duplicity-talk wrote:
> I want to send a backup with --exclude-if-present=TAG and
> --include-filelist.
> The folder /src/folder is not accessible (mode 750, not owner, not
> member of group). This folder is excluded by way of '- **/folder' in
> the include filelist.

> duplicity 0.7.10 (python 2.7.12) fails with
> OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/src/folder/TAG'
>
> duplicity 0.7.06 prints
> Error accessing possibly locked file /src/folder

That makes sense. 0.7.06 threw read errors if any folders within the 
backup path were locked/unreadable, even if those were explicitly 
excluded. In 0.7.10, it only gives the “Error accessing possibly locked 
file” if the file/folder is not excluded. You shouldn’t receive this 
error because you have excluded the folder. If you remove the - 
**/folder in the include filelist (and anything else in your include 
filelist that would exclude that folder), this error should come back 
again (please let me know if that isn’t the case). The only difference 
that should be fixed, therefore, is that the OSError should be 
suppressed if the folder is separately excluded in a different selection 
function. This difference should not have any impact on what is backed 
up in this case (or any I can think of), but I will make a bug for this 
and add it to my list.

> Does the selection process resolve
> exclude-if-present=TAG before it looks at include/exclude filelists
> anyway ?

As per the manual:
--exclude-if-present filename
Exclude directories if filename is present. Allows the user to specify 
folders that they do not wish to backup by adding a specified file (e.g. 
".nobackup") instead of maintaining a comprehensive exclude/include 
list. This option needs to come before any other include or exclude 
options.

So you are supposed to put in that option before any other options (and 
it is therefore supposed to take priority over any other options). I’m 
not quite sure why this is mandated, as from a very quick look at the 
code it looks like it is just evaluated in order like the rest of the 
options — any ideas why this is in the manual, Kenneth (or anyone else)?

Kind regards,

Aaron