borg/docs/man/borg-patterns.1

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.TH "BORG-PATTERNS" "1" "2025-04-18" "" "borg backup tool"
.SH NAME
borg-patterns \- Details regarding patterns
.SH DESCRIPTION
.sp
The path/filenames used as input for the pattern matching start from the
currently active recursion root. You usually give the recursion root(s)
when invoking borg and these can be either relative or absolute paths.
.sp
Starting with Borg 1.2, paths that are matched against patterns always
appear relative. If you give \fB/absolute/\fP as root, the paths going
into the matcher will start with \fBabsolute/\fP\&.
If you give \fB\&../../relative\fP as root, the paths will be normalized
as \fBrelative/\fP\&.
.sp
A directory exclusion pattern can end either with or without a slash (\(aq/\(aq).
If it ends with a slash, such as \fIsome/path/\fP, the directory will be
included but not its content. If it does not end with a slash, such as
\fIsome/path\fP, both the directory and content will be excluded.
.sp
Borg supports different pattern styles. To define a non\-default
style for a specific pattern, prefix it with two characters followed
by a colon \(aq:\(aq (i.e. \fBfm:path/*\fP, \fBsh:path/**\fP).
.INDENT 0.0
.TP
.B Fnmatch <https://docs.python.org/3/library/fnmatch.html>
, selector \fIfm:\fP
This is the default style for \fB\-\-exclude\fP and \fB\-\-exclude\-from\fP\&.
These patterns use a variant of shell pattern syntax, with \(aq*\(aq matching
any number of characters, \(aq?\(aq matching any single character, \(aq[...]\(aq
matching any single character specified, including ranges, and \(aq[!...]\(aq
matching any character not specified. For the purpose of these patterns,
the path separator (backslash for Windows and \(aq/\(aq on other systems) is not
treated specially. Wrap meta\-characters in brackets for a literal
match (i.e. \fI[?]\fP to match the literal character \fI?\fP). For a path
to match a pattern, the full path must match, or it must match
from the start of the full path to just before a path separator. Except
for the root path, paths will never end in the path separator when
matching is attempted.  Thus, if a given pattern ends in a path
separator, a \(aq*\(aq is appended before matching is attempted. A leading
path separator is always removed.
.TP
.B Shell\-style patterns, selector \fIsh:\fP
This is the default style for \fB\-\-pattern\fP and \fB\-\-patterns\-from\fP\&.
Like fnmatch patterns these are similar to shell patterns. The difference
is that the pattern may include \fI**/\fP for matching zero or more directory
levels, \fI*\fP for matching zero or more arbitrary characters with the
exception of any path separator. A leading path separator is always removed.
.TP
.B Regular expressions, selector \fIre:\fP
Regular expressions similar to those found in Perl are supported. Unlike
shell patterns regular expressions are not required to match the full
path and any substring match is sufficient. It is strongly recommended to
anchor patterns to the start (\(aq^\(aq), to the end (\(aq$\(aq) or both. Path
separators (backslash for Windows and \(aq/\(aq on other systems) in paths are
always normalized to a forward slash (\(aq/\(aq) before applying a pattern. The
regular expression syntax is described in the Python documentation for
the re module <https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html>
\&.
.TP
.B Path prefix, selector \fIpp:\fP
This pattern style is useful to match whole sub\-directories. The pattern
\fIpp:root/somedir\fP matches \fIroot/somedir\fP and everything therein. A leading
path separator is always removed.
.TP
.B Path full\-match, selector \fIpf:\fP
This pattern style is (only) useful to match full paths.
This is kind of a pseudo pattern as it can not have any variable or
unspecified parts \- the full path must be given. \fIpf:root/file.ext\fP matches
\fIroot/file.ext\fP only. A leading path separator is always removed.
.sp
Implementation note: this is implemented via very time\-efficient O(1)
hashtable lookups (this means you can have huge amounts of such patterns
without impacting performance much).
Due to that, this kind of pattern does not respect any context or order.
If you use such a pattern to include a file, it will always be included
(if the directory recursion encounters it).
Other include/exclude patterns that would normally match will be ignored.
Same logic applies for exclude.
.UNINDENT
.sp
\fBNOTE:\fP
.INDENT 0.0
.INDENT 3.5
\fIre:\fP, \fIsh:\fP and \fIfm:\fP patterns are all implemented on top of the Python SRE
engine. It is very easy to formulate patterns for each of these types which
requires an inordinate amount of time to match paths. If untrusted users
are able to supply patterns, ensure they cannot supply \fIre:\fP patterns.
Further, ensure that \fIsh:\fP and \fIfm:\fP patterns only contain a handful of
wildcards at most.
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.sp
Exclusions can be passed via the command line option \fB\-\-exclude\fP\&. When used
from within a shell, the patterns should be quoted to protect them from
expansion.
.sp
Patterns matching special characters, e.g. white space, within a shell may
require adjustments, such as putting quotation marks around the arguments.
Example:
Using bash, the following command line option would match and exclude \(dqitem name\(dq:
\fB\-\-pattern=\(aq\-path/item name\(aq\fP
Note that when patterns are used within a pattern file directly read by borg,
e.g. when using \fB\-\-exclude\-from\fP or \fB\-\-patterns\-from\fP, there is no shell
involved and thus no quotation marks are required.
.sp
The \fB\-\-exclude\-from\fP option permits loading exclusion patterns from a text
file with one pattern per line. Lines empty or starting with the number sign
(\(aq#\(aq) after removing whitespace on both ends are ignored. The optional style
selector prefix is also supported for patterns loaded from a file. Due to
whitespace removal, paths with whitespace at the beginning or end can only be
excluded using regular expressions.
.sp
To test your exclusion patterns without performing an actual backup you can
run \fBborg create \-\-list \-\-dry\-run ...\fP\&.
.sp
Examples:
.INDENT 0.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.EX
# Exclude \(aq/home/user/file.o\(aq but not \(aq/home/user/file.odt\(aq:
$ borg create \-e \(aq*.o\(aq backup /

# Exclude \(aq/home/user/junk\(aq and \(aq/home/user/subdir/junk\(aq but
# not \(aq/home/user/importantjunk\(aq or \(aq/etc/junk\(aq:
$ borg create \-e \(aqhome/*/junk\(aq backup /

# Exclude the contents of \(aq/home/user/cache\(aq but not the directory itself:
$ borg create \-e home/user/cache/ backup /

# The file \(aq/home/user/cache/important\(aq is *not* backed up:
$ borg create \-e home/user/cache/ backup / /home/user/cache/important

# The contents of directories in \(aq/home\(aq are not backed up when their name
# ends in \(aq.tmp\(aq
$ borg create \-\-exclude \(aqre:^home/[^/]+\e.tmp/\(aq backup /

# Load exclusions from file
$ cat >exclude.txt <<EOF
# Comment line
home/*/junk
*.tmp
fm:aa:something/*
re:^home/[^/]+\e.tmp/
sh:home/*/.thumbnails
# Example with spaces, no need to escape as it is processed by borg
some file with spaces.txt
EOF
$ borg create \-\-exclude\-from exclude.txt backup /
.EE
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.sp
A more general and easier to use way to define filename matching patterns
exists with the \fB\-\-pattern\fP and \fB\-\-patterns\-from\fP options. Using
these, you may specify the backup roots, default pattern styles and
patterns for inclusion and exclusion.
.INDENT 0.0
.TP
.B Root path prefix \fBR\fP
A recursion root path starts with the prefix \fBR\fP, followed by a path
(a plain path, not a file pattern). Use this prefix to have the root
paths in the patterns file rather than as command line arguments.
.TP
.B Pattern style prefix \fBP\fP
To change the default pattern style, use the \fBP\fP prefix, followed by
the pattern style abbreviation (\fBfm\fP, \fBpf\fP, \fBpp\fP, \fBre\fP, \fBsh\fP).
All patterns following this line will use this style until another style
is specified.
.TP
.B Exclude pattern prefix \fB\-\fP
Use the prefix \fB\-\fP, followed by a pattern, to define an exclusion.
This has the same effect as the \fB\-\-exclude\fP option.
.TP
.B Exclude no\-recurse pattern prefix \fB!\fP
Use the prefix \fB!\fP, followed by a pattern, to define an exclusion
that does not recurse into subdirectories. This saves time, but
prevents include patterns to match any files in subdirectories.
.TP
.B Include pattern prefix \fB+\fP
Use the prefix \fB+\fP, followed by a pattern, to define inclusions.
This is useful to include paths that are covered in an exclude
pattern and would otherwise not be backed up.
.UNINDENT
.sp
\fBNOTE:\fP
.INDENT 0.0
.INDENT 3.5
Via \fB\-\-pattern\fP or \fB\-\-patterns\-from\fP you can define BOTH inclusion and exclusion
of files using pattern prefixes \fB+\fP and \fB\-\fP\&. With \fB\-\-exclude\fP and
\fB\-\-exclude\-from\fP ONLY excludes are defined.
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.sp
The first matching pattern is used, so if an include pattern matches
before an exclude pattern, the file is backed up. Note that a no\-recurse
exclude stops examination of subdirectories so that potential includes
will not match \- use normal excludes for such use cases.
.sp
Example:
.INDENT 0.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.EX
# Define the recursion root
R /
# Exclude all iso files in any directory
\- **/*.iso
# Explicitly include all inside etc and root
+ etc/**
+ root/**
# Exclude a specific directory under each user\(aqs home directories
\- home/*/.cache
# Explicitly include everything in /home
+ home/**
# Explicitly exclude some directories without recursing into them
! re:^(dev|proc|run|sys|tmp)
# Exclude all other files and directories
# that are not specifically included earlier.
\- **
.EE
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.sp
\fBNOTE:\fP
.INDENT 0.0
.INDENT 3.5
It\(aqs possible that a sub\-directory/file is matched while parent directories are not.
In that case, parent directories are not backed up thus their user, group, permission,
etc. can not be restored.
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.sp
Note that the default pattern style for \fB\-\-pattern\fP and \fB\-\-patterns\-from\fP is
shell style (\fIsh:\fP), so those patterns behave similar to rsync include/exclude
patterns. The pattern style can be set via the \fIP\fP prefix.
.sp
Patterns (\fB\-\-pattern\fP) and excludes (\fB\-\-exclude\fP) from the command line are
considered first (in the order of appearance). Then patterns from \fB\-\-patterns\-from\fP
are added. Exclusion patterns from \fB\-\-exclude\-from\fP files are appended last.
.sp
Examples:
.INDENT 0.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.EX
# backup pics, but not the ones from 2018, except the good ones:
# note: using = is essential to avoid cmdline argument parsing issues.
borg create \-\-pattern=+pics/2018/good \-\-pattern=\-pics/2018 repo::arch pics

# use a file with patterns:
borg create \-\-patterns\-from patterns.lst repo::arch
.EE
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.sp
The patterns.lst file could look like that:
.INDENT 0.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.EX
# \(dqsh:\(dq pattern style is the default, so the following line is not needed:
P sh
R /
# can be rebuild
\- home/*/.cache
# they\(aqre downloads for a reason
\- home/*/Downloads
# susan is a nice person
# include susans home
+ home/susan
# also back up this exact file
+ pf:home/bobby/specialfile.txt
# don\(aqt backup the other home directories
\- home/*
# don\(aqt even look in /proc
! proc
.EE
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.sp
You can specify recursion roots either on the command line or in a patternfile:
.INDENT 0.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.EX
# these two commands do the same thing
borg create \-\-exclude home/bobby/junk repo::arch /home/bobby /home/susan
borg create \-\-patterns\-from patternfile.lst repo::arch
.EE
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.sp
The patternfile:
.INDENT 0.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.EX
# note that excludes use fm: by default and patternfiles use sh: by default.
# therefore, we need to specify fm: to have the same exact behavior.
P fm
R /home/bobby
R /home/susan

\- home/bobby/junk
.EE
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.sp
This allows you to share the same patterns between multiple repositories
without needing to specify them on the command line.
.SH AUTHOR
The Borg Collective
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