Setting up your backuplist+ preferences

There are several options that affect your use of backuplist+. These are divided into four tabs in the settings panel: Settings for a particular backup set are called "Settings." "Global" settings affect all backups. There are also tabs for "Exclude list" items and "Advanced" settings. These can be found in the Settings drawer (See below.)

Local settings for each backup set

  1. Backup to folder. Check this for backuplist+ to back up files into a folder that you name in the following text field. See "choosing a backup folder" for more info.
  2. Incremental backups. Check this to have backuplist+ make incremental backups. You should select a number greater than 3 to be truly effective. More on incremental backups....
  3. Dated folder. Check this to make a new folder for the backup files with the current date stamp on it. This required for incremental backups.
  4. Synchronize two folders: Check this box if you want rsync to synchronize the contents of two folders. Usually backuplist+ copies the files or folders in the list window into the destination folder. If you check the "Synchronize two folders" box, rsync will copy the contents of the folder in the list window into the destination folder. It then copies the contents of the destination folder back into the source folder. It will not delete files missing in either folder and will not copy over any file that is newer. This preserves the latest states of the files exactly so each folder is identical. This is useful if you work on several different machines and want to keep a folder, such as your Home folder, identical on each. It is not advised to synchronize your own Startup disk or Hard drive with another while it is running. You must have only one folder present in the main list window to sync with the destination folder. If you choose "Sync folders", you can not select other options such as "Backup to folder", "Dated folder", "rsync delete option", "Recreate full folder paths", "Incremental backups", "Make Disk image" or "Burn folder."
  5. Compressed archive. This will cause backuplist+ to make one single compressed archive from your list of folders/files. The compressed archive will appear in the destination folder
  6. Make disk image. This creates a sparse type disk image, mounts it, copies your list of folders/files into it and then un-mounts it. See more about Disk image...
  7. Burn folder. This option creates a burn folder and places aliases of your list of folders/files in it, ready to burn them to CD or DVD. Be sure the total size is less than the capacity of the disk you are burning. You can also check "Compressed archive" and then you can burn a disk of that archive.
  8. Recreate full folder paths. This will create folders on the backup that re-create the folder paths on your hard drive. For example if you are copying your Mail folder it will be copied into a sequence of folders that mimic its position on your hard drive, > Mail > Preferences > Library > Home folder .
  9. Rsync delete option. This causes rsync to delete and files on the destination that are not on the source. Use with caution!
  10. Before performing clone: Use this popup list to select one of several options to be performed automatically before backuplist+ copies your startup disk (makes a full system clone.) You can select to repair permissions of your startup disk or also erase the destination drive. It is recommended that you erase the drive prior to making a new bootable clone on an external partition or drive. Selecting "Perform clone update only" will force backuplist+ to only update any files that have changed on the destination drive or, if the drive/partition is empty, it will make a complete new copy (without repairing permissions first.)
  11. Scheduling. Set a time for backuplist+ to perform a backup session. See the Scheduling page for more.....

Global settings (available to all backup sets)

  1. Administrator password. Check the box and enter your user administrator password. This is useful for many reasons. You can usually copy any of your personal files without using a password. In many cases backuplist+ will not run a backup without it if it encounters a file with "bad permissions". System files can not be copied without a password. Password will override permissions problems and allow a faster exit if you quit a backup session. It is recommended. Backuplist+ encrypts the password three times, using state of the art encryption, when saving it. If you don't enter your password, backuplist+ may ask for it before a backup session begins. System clones require an administrator password, either at runtime or entered in the settings panel above.
  2. Make Backuplist+ a login item. This is necessary for scheduling backups!
  3. More accurate progress bar. This option causes backuplist+ to create a total count file list first, before launching rsync, to use in calculating progress. It can add a few seconds for a small folder backup up to several minutes for very large numbers of files counted ( over one million. ) Note: this option, if selected only creates the file list for non- incremental backups that are in the foreground with the progress panel showing.
  4. Run backups in background. This is available only when you set backuplist+ to run in Background-only mode and will mean that all backup sessions will occur in the background, No window or progress bar will be visible, but the backuplist+ icon, which appears in the main menu bar (in Background-only mode) will turn into a spinning icon during the backup and return to normal when complete. If you wish rsync to run the backup slower, using less CPU and freeing the computer up for other work, you can also check the box labeled "Run rsync slower"
  5. Check for updates at startup. Check this if you want backuplist+ to check for updates online each time it starts up.


Advanced options

  1. Create debug report. This will cause backuplist+ generate a report on it's functions as it moves through the code to before and after a backup session occurs. Useful mainly for me if there are problems we need to fix. The report shows up in the Users Library Logs folder and is called backuplist.log.
  2. Save rsync output. This will cause backuplist+ to generate a report on rsync's progress and any errors that occur. There is summary called "stats" at the end summing up the number of files transferred, speed etc.. The report shows up in the Users Library Logs folder and is updated as the transfer proceeds. Backuplist+ gets its progress information from this log to update the progress window and the progress bar. Un-checking this option is only recommended if you have limited internal disk space since the rsynclog.log file can become quite large for big backups. A 100 Gb backup will produce a 200MB + file. This file gets over-written at the beginning of each rsync session so its size returns to 0KB. Keep this box checked always for normal backuplist+ functioning.
  3. Rsync expert options: You can write your own command line options and they will be remembered for the particular backup set. You must be familiar with using rsync options or read the man page for this version of rsync for more details. "Delete" and "incremental backups" are available as check boxes on the "Settings tab" so you don't need to include those options. See the "glossary of rsync terms" at bottom of this document. The rsync_options file is included with this application or you can download it here.....
    http://homepage.mac.com/robdut/.Public/rsync_options.zip

Using the Exclude Preference Pane

The exclude list is available for each backup set you use. You must check the "Use exclude list" b to edit the list and enable the exclusions for the backups. The list items apply to the items listed in the main list window. To add items simply drag and drop folders and files into the window and backuplist+ will format the path expression for the exclusions. Backuplist+ will attempt to create the correct exclude pattern for the intended item for any source files in the source list.

You can also check the "Delete excluded" checkbox which will ensure any items on the destination that are listed in the exclude list will be deleted, even if they already exist there before the backup session.

Note: The exclude list also works for compressed archives. You must create a fresh new exclude list for this option since the paths used to exclude files are different from those for regular backups with rsync. If you change to Compressed Archive, and already have an exclude list set up, you must erase it and begin fresh!

For more go to Exclude lists and Exclude patterns ...


See also

Choose a backup destination
Choose a backup folder

Setting the copy method