Default exclusion lists, ProgramData should not be contained

carsten · September 30, 2023, 12:59pm

How is the default list of excluded files be calculated? The windows clients config seem to get them magically.

The ProgramData directory often contains importand data and should not be excluded by default.

uroni · September 30, 2023, 1:41pm

The default list is created like this:

uroni/urbackup_frontend_wx/blob/dev/SetupWizard.cpp#L622


      
          }

          

          void SetupWizard::wizardNext( wxWizardEvent& event )

          {

          }

          

          

          void SetupWizard::finishSetup( EFileBackupChoice fileBackupChoice, EImageBackupChoice imageBackupChoice, const std::wstring& volume_choice )

          {

          #ifdef _WIN32

          	std::vector<std::wstring> pathsNotToBackup = fixupPaths(resolvePaths(getPathsNotToBackup()));

          

          	pathsNotToBackup.push_back(L"C:\\Users\\:\\AppData\\Local\\Temp");

          	pathsNotToBackup.push_back(L"C:\\Users\\:\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Temporary Internet Files");

          	pathsNotToBackup.push_back(L"C:\\Users\\:\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome\\User Data\\:\\Cache");

          	pathsNotToBackup.push_back(L"C:\\Users\\:\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome\\User Data\\:\\Media Cache");

          	pathsNotToBackup.push_back(L"C:\\Users\\:\\AppData\\Local\\Google\\Chrome\\User Data\\:\\Code Cache");

          	pathsNotToBackup.push_back(L"C:\\Users\\:\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Explorer\\thumbcache*");

          	pathsNotToBackup.push_back(L"C:\\Users\\:\\AppData\\Local\\Mozilla\\Firefox\\Profiles\\:\\cache2");

          	pathsNotToBackup.push_back(L"C:\\Users\\:\\AppData\\Local\\Mozilla\\Firefox\\Profiles\\:\\cache");

          	pathsNotToBackup.push_back(L"C:\\Windows\\Temp");

carsten · September 30, 2023, 1:45pm

I have lots of other paths in my windows clients, I never set, e.g.
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER*;C:\Windows\Minidump*;:\hiberfil.sys;
Where do they come from?
Also why is hiberfile not included in the defaults any more?

uroni · September 30, 2023, 2:00pm

It is probably coming from the line a pointed at where it calls

github.com

uroni/urbackup_frontend_wx/blob/388151791e9d619877e40d1fce651ddded717fa9/SetupWizard.cpp#L89


      
          			if(buf!=NULL)

          			{

          				NetApiBufferFree(buf);

          			}

          		}

          		while (status == ERROR_MORE_DATA);

          

          		return ret;

          	}

          

          	std::vector<std::wstring> getPathsNotToBackup()

          	{

          		HKEY FilesNotToBackup;

          		if(RegOpenKeyExW(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, L"SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\BackupRestore\\FilesNotToBackup",

          			0, KEY_ENUMERATE_SUB_KEYS|KEY_READ, &FilesNotToBackup)!=ERROR_SUCCESS)

          		{

          			std::cerr << "Error opening registry key SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\BackupRestore\\FilesNotToBackup" << std::endl;

          			return std::vector<std::wstring>();

          		}

          

          		DWORD maxClassLen;

which reads from registry key SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\BackupRestore\\FilesNotToBackup

carsten · September 30, 2023, 5:23pm

It seems, that this registry entries are copies to the client configuraton at time of first setup.
This seems not the correct way to me, because the registry key entries can change over time. I think this information should not be transfered to the client configuration but the urbackupclient should reread this list at every backup.