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2.2.5. Options (Advanced)

The Options (Advanced) tabs include technical or complex options that you can use to customize how your backup functions.
Command to run before backup
Command(s) entered here will run in the default system shell before fwbackups begins to backup files (not available in one-time backups).
Command to run after backup
Command(s) entered here will run in the default system shell after fwbackups has finished backing up (not available in one-time backups).

Tokens

Both the before and after backup commands support token string replacements. fwbackups will replace tokens you use in your commands with their appropriate values:
[successful]
If the backup was completed successfully without errors, this token will be substituted for 1. In the event of a failure or backup error, a 0 will be substituted.
[destination]
The destination folder (see Section 2.2.2, “Destination”). If a remote host is being used, then this will be token will be the remote folder.
[set]
The set name
[date]
The date string (YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM) when the backup was started
[backup]
The name of the backup file or folder that will be stored in the backup destination. It is equivalent to Backup-[set]-[date], plus the archive extension if applicable.
[remote_host]
The hostname of the remote machine where the backup will be store
[remote_port]
The port to connect to the remote hostname on
[remote_username]
The username used to connect to the remote host
[remote_password]
The password used to connect to the remote host
Use [destination]/[backup] if you need the absolute path to the new backup folder or file. If you want to escape one of the tokens (for example, to actually use the text [date] in a command), prefix it by a backslash (\[date]).
Nice value of backup process
This controls the priority of the backup (a lower nice value indicates a higher priority). This feature is only available on Unix-like platforms. Only the root user may select negative nice values.
Exclude from backup
Files and folders matching the patterns listed in this text entry will be excluded from the backup. File, folder or patterns for exclusion should be entered one per line. The contents of this text entry will be passed directly to the tar or rsync processes when performing the backup. In the example below, all files in the /home/username/Exclude folder, all files with the png extension, the file /home/username/foobar.jpg and lastly any file named specificname.txt are all excluded from the backup.
Example 2.5. Excluding files

/home/username/Exclude/*
*.png
/home/username/foobar.jpg
specificname.txt