Excluding multiple directories using 'virtualmin backup-domain'

edwardsmarkf · December 5, 2025, 10:49pm

hello all -

i am trying to create a backup that excludes a couple of directories. i have tried every combination i can think of to exclude multiple directories from the virtualmin backup-domain command:

–exclude public_html/dir1 --exclude public_html/dir2 (just excludes the first one)

–exclude “public_html/dir1 public_html/dir2” (from AI)
–exclude “public_html/dir1 , public_html/dir2” (from AI)

–exclude-from /tmp/exclude-list.txt (list below)

cat /tmp/exclude-list.txt;
public_html/dir1
public_html/dir1

please let me know if there is a way to exclude multiple directories using the
virtualmin backup-domain--exclude command.

SYSTEM INFORMATION
OS type and version	RL-8.10
Webmin version	2.61
Virtualmin version	7.50.0 Professiona
Webserver version	Apache/2.4.37
Related packages	SUGGESTED

africabloe · December 6, 2025, 2:49am

Joe · December 6, 2025, 6:54am

The first one you showed should work. Are you running this in a real terminal?

Looking at the code, it should be building an array of paths to exclude:

github.com/virtualmin/virtualmin-gpl

backup-domain.pl

8813ddfc8


      
          		}
          	elsif ($a eq "--key") {
          		$keyid = shift(@ARGV);
          		}
          	elsif ($a eq "--no-sign") {
          		$nosign = 1;
          		}
          	elsif ($a eq "--sign") {
          		$nosign = 0;
          		}
          	elsif ($a eq "--exclude") {
          		$exclude = shift(@ARGV);
          		push(@exclude, $exclude);
          		}
          	elsif ($a eq "--include") {
          		$include = shift(@ARGV);
          		push(@include, $include);
          		}
          	elsif ($a eq "--multiline") {
          		$multiline = 1;
          		}

Ilia · December 6, 2025, 10:40am

Using multiple --exclude is the correct syntax. Do you have – or -- for the first one?

That said, I checked the code and it all seems correct at first glance. Make sure that you really have -- in all cases placed before --exclude. Yet, I’d also expect command to fail with – in it.

edwardsmarkf · December 6, 2025, 5:34pm

DANG… sorry , the issue is user-error.

multiple --exclude is/are working perfectly, exactly as expected.

i certainly apologize for just assuming there was an issue, when in reality it was my supidity.

Jamie · December 7, 2025, 4:00pm

Ok glad you got it worked out!

system · December 15, 2025, 4:00pm

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