Using Wildcards

You can use wildcards in backup and restore file selection rules. MyLiveVault supports using wildcards to represent a directory in the rule path or to represent characters in the file pattern, the component after the last backslash (\).

Wildcards in file patterns

You can use the following Windows wildcard characters in a rule's file pattern, the component after the last backslash (\):

Wildcard	Represents
* (asterisk)	Represents zero, one or more characters at the current character position.
? (question mark)	Represents a single character.

File pattern wildcard examples

The following table shows examples of using wildcards in file patterns:

File pattern	Finds
C:\MEETINGS\MASS*	C:\MEETINGS\MASS MUTUAL.DOC C:\MEETINGS\MASSACHUSETTS LIGHTING.XLS
C:\MEETINGS\MASS?.PPT	C:\MEETINGS\MASSC.PPT
D:\INVOICES\RECON*.SQL	D:\INVOICES\RECONCILE.SQL
C:\SALES\WN.RPT	C:\SALES\WONDERLAND.RPT
C:\SALES\W?N*.RPT	C:\SALES\WINTER.RPT

Exclude rules with file pattern wildcards

It is important to understand how exclude rules with wildcards are interpreted. For example:

Rule	Result
C:\TEMP\TEST.DOC	Only TEST.DOC is excluded; no other files in TEMP are matched.
C:\TEMP\*	The directory TEMP and all files in it are excluded.

Wildcards representing directories

You can use the Windows wildcard character * (asterisk) in a rule to represent a directory. For example, this feature makes it significantly easier to create exclude rules for directories that should not be backed up.

Only one directory wildcard may be embedded in a rule and it must be a single *. The wildcard will match any directory in the rule path.

Directory wildcard examples

For example, LiveVault Online Backup Service uses directory wildcards to create exclude rules for temporary Internet files. In the case of temporary Internet files, a directory exists for each user name that can log in and do Internet browsing on the computer. LiveVault Online Backup Service creates the appropriate "exclude with subdirectories" rule (as shown below) to exclude the temporary Internet files without having to name each user:

Windows NT 4.0: C:\WINNT\Profiles\*\Temporary Internet Files\*
Windows 2000/2003: C:\Documents and Settings\*\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\*

Exclude rules with directory wildcards

A directory wildcard rule may match files that you don't expect because the service's filter driver may see an object being opened which could match the rule, but the driver may not know at that point whether it is a file or directory. In this case, the filter driver will assume that the rule matches the object and exclude the object per the rule.

For example, the rule C:\WINNT\Profiles\*\Temporary Internet Files\* will match all files in the C:\WINNT\Profiles directory.

Related Information

Understanding File Selection Rules
Interpreting File Selection Rules
Manually Defining Backup File Selection Rules
Manually Defining Restore File Selection Rules