vendor and node_module still exist in time machine

[tanthammar]

Apologies for asking, but I don't understand how any of this works, wandering in a black hole ...

1. When I launch Time Machine all my projects, vendor and node_modules are still there.
2. When I run sudo mdfind "com_apple_backup_excludeItem = 'com.apple.backupd' none of the vendor/node_modules, dirs are listed.

I launched the daemon a few days ago and thought that the newer backups wouldn't include those folders?

• I followed the installation instructions.
  • Got "Asimov daemon has been loaded!" in terminal
  • In the list generated from the process, I could see my projects in the "Sites" dir being added for exclusion.

My "web" projects are either in the "Sites" folder or in my "Github" folder on my mac. Each of them have node_modules and vendor folders ...

[codexp]

Once backup has been done for those folders, they will remain for ever. Excluding a directory from backup will merely prevent time machine backing up newer changes, but old files will persist.

You can manually delete those folders from time machine for all backups.

Here is a link how to do that: http://osxdaily.com/2015/07/27/delete-old-backups-time-machine-mac/

[stevegrunwell]

As @codexp mentioned above, Asimov doesn't remove those directories from existing backups, it only prevents them from being added to or updated in Time Machine.

This does raise a gap in the documentation, however, so I'm going to keep the issue open. It might also be worth considering a "wipe these directories out from backups"-type command to purge dependencies that have already made it to Time Machine 🤔

[ajoslin103]

When time machine creates a new backup - are the exclusions then fully in force?

IOW: If TM creates a new backup does that reset everything and there is no longer a need for a "wipe these directories out from backups"-type command ?

[j-f1]

I don’t think so. Time Machine simply won’t add the updated directories to the backup, but they’ll continue to exist in old backups.

[terryupton]

At what point then would these folders be listed in the sudo mdfind "com_apple_backup_excludeItem = 'com.apple.backupd' command?

Does this only happen if they are never added from the outset?