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NetBackup™ Web UI Administrator's Guide

Last Published: 2024-06-20

Product(s): NetBackup & Alta Data Protection (10.4.0.1)

Wildcard use in NetBackup

NetBackup recognizes the following wildcard characters in areas where wildcards can be used. (For example, in the paths of include and exclude file lists.)

The following table shows the wildcards that can be used in various NetBackup dialog boxes and lists.

Table: Wildcard use in NetBackup

Wildcard	Use
*	An asterisk serves as a wildcard for zero or more characters. An asterisk can be used in the backup selection list, the include list, and the exclude list for Windows and UNIX clients. For example: r* refers to all files that begin with r *r.doc refers to all files that begin with r and end with .doc. To back up all files that end in .conf, specify: /etc/.conf*
?	A question mark serves as a wildcard for any single character (A through Z; 0 through 9). A question mark can be used in the backup selection list, the include list, and the exclude list for Windows and UNIX clients. For example: file? refers to file2, file3, file4 file?? refers to file12, file28, file89 To back up all files named log01_03, log02_03, specify: c:\system\log??_03
[ ]	A pair of square brackets indicates any single character or range of characters that are separated with a dash. For example: file[2-4] refers to file2, file3, and file4 file[24] refers to file2, file4 [2-4] refers to file2, file3, file4, name2, name3, name4* Brackets are not valid wildcards under all circumstances for all clients: Brackets that are used as wildcards in include and exclude lists: Windows clients: Allowed UNIX clients: Allowed Brackets that are used as wildcards in policy backup selections lists: Windows clients: Not allowed; the use of brackets in policy backup selections lists causes backups to fail with a status 71. UNIX clients: Allowed
{ }	Curly brackets can be used in the backup selection list, the include list, and the exclude list for UNIX clients only. A pair of curly brackets (or braces) indicates multiple file name patterns. Separate the patterns by commas only; no spaces are permitted. A match is made for any or all entries. For example: *{1.doc,.pdf}* refers to file1.doc, file1.pdf, file2.pdf Note: Curly brackets are valid characters for Windows file names and cannot be used as wildcards on Windows platforms. Backslashes cannot be used as escape characters for curly bracket characters.

To use wildcard characters literally, precede the character with a backslash (\).

A backslash (\) acts as an escape character only when it precedes a special or a wildcard character. NetBackup normally interprets a backslash literally because a backslash is a legal character to use in paths.

Assume that the brackets in the following examples are to be used literally:

C:\abc\fun[ny]name

In the exclude list, precede the brackets with a backslash:

C:\abc\fun\[ny\]name

Table: Placement of wildcards in the path of backup selections

Client type	Examples
For Windows clients, wildcards function correctly only when they are placed at the end of the path, in the file or the directory name.	The following example is allowed: *C:\abc\xyz\r.doc Wildcard characters do not work elsewhere in the path. For example, an asterisk functions as a literal character (not as a wildcard) in the following examples: C:\\xyz\myfile* *C:\abc\\myfile**
For UNIX clients, wildcards can appear anywhere in the path.	The following examples are allowed: */etc//abc/myfile /etc/misc//myfile* /etc/misc/abc/.

Client type

Examples

For Windows clients, wildcards function correctly only when they are placed at the end of the path, in the file or the directory name.

The following example is allowed:

C:\abc\xyz\r*.doc

Wildcard characters do not work elsewhere in the path. For example, an asterisk functions as a literal character (not as a wildcard) in the following examples:

C:\*\xyz\myfile

C:\abc\*\myfile

For UNIX clients, wildcards can appear anywhere in the path.

The following examples are allowed:

/etc/*/abc/myfile

/etc/misc/*/myfile

/etc/misc/abc/*.*