Paths

The paths list defines directories or files to archive and back up. Each entry is compressed into a .tar.gz archive using the same pipeline as database backups — stored locally, uploaded via rclone, and pruned by retention rules.

Fields

paths:
  - name: myapp_uploads       # (required) Unique identifier, used in filenames
    path: /var/www/myapp/uploads  # (required) Absolute path to back up
    preset_excludes:          # Quick patterns to skip (see below)
      - node_modules
      - git
      - build
    excluded_paths:           # Custom patterns to skip
      - "*.log"
      - "cache/"
      - "config/secrets.yaml"
    enabled: true

Preset excludes

Select common patterns without memorizing flags. Each preset maps to one or more glob patterns applied at any depth in the directory tree.

Key	Skips
`node_modules`	`node_modules/`
`vendor`	`vendor/`
`git`	`.git/`
`python`	`__pycache__/`, `.pyc`, `.pyo`, `.venv/`, `venv/`
`build`	`dist/`, `build/`, `target/`, `out/`, `.next/`, `.nuxt/`
`logs`	`*.log`, `logs/`
`temp`	`.tmp`, `.temp`, `tmp/`, `temp/`
`ide`	`.idea/`, `.vscode/`, `*.swp`
`cache`	`cache/`, `.cache/`, `*.cache`
`docker`	`.docker/`

Set them via opsvault config → Paths → Quick excludes using the checkbox picker, or list them directly in the YAML under preset_excludes.

Custom excluded paths

The excluded_paths field accepts glob patterns:

No / — matched against the file or directory name at any depth (*.log skips all log files anywhere in the tree)
Contains / — matched against the full path relative to the backup root (config/secrets.yaml skips only that specific file)

excluded_paths:
  - "*.log"          # all .log files, any depth
  - "tmp/"           # any directory named tmp/
  - "config/local.php"   # specific file at config/local.php

Excluded directories are skipped entirely — the archiver never descends into them. This makes excluding large directories like node_modules fast regardless of how many files they contain.

Archive format

Archives are saved as .tar.gz files:

{name}_{YYYYMMDD}_{HHMMSS}.tar.gz

For example: myapp_uploads_20240115_020001.tar.gz

File permissions are preserved in the archive. Symlinks are skipped.

Remote upload

Path archives are uploaded to rclone using the same storage.rclone settings as database backups. The {name} variable in the path template refers to the path entry's name field.

storage:
  rclone:
    enabled: true
    remote: "s3backup"
    path: "opsvault/{hostname}/{name}/{date}"

With a path named myapp_uploads, the remote destination would be: s3backup:opsvault/myserver/myapp_uploads/2024-01-15/

Retention

Path archives are pruned by the same retention rules as database backups — keep_last and keep_days apply to .tar.gz files in the backup directory.

Example

paths:
  - name: wordpress_uploads
    path: /var/www/wordpress/wp-content/uploads
    preset_excludes:
      - cache
    enabled: true

  - name: nginx_config
    path: /etc/nginx
    enabled: true

  - name: app_data
    path: /opt/myapp/data
    preset_excludes:
      - logs
      - temp
    excluded_paths:
      - "*.pid"
      - "sockets/"
    enabled: true

Running path backups

Path backups run automatically on the cron schedule alongside database backups. To run manually:

opsvault backup run                  # all databases + all paths
opsvault backup run myapp_uploads    # single path by name

Paths

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