FileBack PC Variable Expansion

FileBack PC supports variable expansion, allowing a single configuration file to be used on multiple computers, or with multiple users, with different backup behavior based on who is logged into a computer at any given time, by date or time, or by other configurable parameters.

FileBack PC variables can be used in folder paths, network paths, outgoing email and other alerts, file specifications, file archive folder paths, folder exclusion lists, text prompts, and other locations.

Inserting Variables

FileBack PC variables always follow the following convention: { (FB$variable name) }.  A backup source path including a variable might look like: C:\My Documents\{FB$username}\, which would be expanded to C:\My Documents\jsmith\ for example.

Variables can either be typed manually, or be inserted by FileBack PC.  To have FileBack PC insert a variable, place the insertion point (cursor) where the variable should be added, click the notepad icon next to the data entry field, and pick the variable from the popup list.

Using Variables in Network and Folder paths

Network Paths

Including a variable in a network path is simply a matter of including the variable name, within braces, in the network path, when mapping a network drive from within the Backup Job Editor in FileBack PC.

Folder Paths

Variables can be typed directly into the space provided for editing the source and destination backup paths.  System information variables that reference folders on your computer are automatically appended with a trailing backslash (\) if necessary.

Pre-defined variables

A number of variables have been pre-defined within FileBack PC:

System Information Variables

Time and Date Variables

Date and time variables can also have offsets added to or subtracted from them.  For example, {FB$DATE-4} is replaced with the date 4 days ago, or {FB$DATE+0.5} is replaced with the date 1/2 day (12 hours) in the future.

Backup Information Variables

User Variables - System Registry

FileBack PC user variables are stored as string values in the system registry. The following keys are used:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Maximum Output Software\FileBack PC\4.0\Variables

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Maximum Output Software\FileBack PC\4.0\Variables

When expanding variables, FileBack first searches HKEY_CURRENT_USER. If it finds a value for the requested variable, that value is substituted and the backup process continues. If no entry is found in HKEY_CURRENT_USER, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE is searched as well.

All variables should be stored using the REG_SZ data type.

Note: Variable names in the registry SHOULD include the FB$ prefix.  The prefix is NOT added automatically by FileBack PC.

User Variables - Lookup in .VAR files

Any text file with a .VAR extension in the FileBack PC program folder are automatically loaded and searched for variable contents.  The format of the data within these files is NAME=CONTENTS on individual lines within the file.  Variables found in .VAR files override all other variables, including those built into FileBack PC.

Note: Variable names in .VAR files should NOT include the FB$ prefix.  The prefix is added automatically by FileBack PC.

Undefined Variables

If a variable is not found, the user is alerted that the variable could not be found, and is prompted to enter a value for the variable. He/she is then prompted whether to save the contents of the variable for all users, for just him/herself, or to not save the contents for future recall.  If you do not wish for the user to be prompted for a value, either use the {FB$DEFAULT$name,value} or {FB$NOPROMPT$name} format.

Default Values

There are two additional options for the way FileBack PC handles unknown variables.  Placing a NOPROMPT$ in front of the variable name ({FB$NOPROMPT$USERFOLDER} for example) prevents the 'variable does not exist' prompt from appearing and uses an empty value as the default.  Placing DEFAULT$ in front of the variable allows a default value to be specified: {FB$DEFAULT$USERFOLDER,C:\UserDocs} will return C:\UserDocs if the USERFOLDER variable does not exist.

Nested Variables

FileBack PC also supports nested variables, meaning that you can include the name of one variable within another.  For example, you could include the contents of a file (FB$file$xxx) whose name is stored in another variable (FB$fblogfile): {FB$file${FB$fblogfile}}

Variables in Restoration/Cleanup Procedures

FileBack PC 4.0 keeps a list of folders that have been used for storing backups and automatically scans all of these folders which are available when the restoration or cleanup is performed.  Including a variable in a backup folder path will make the restoration and cleanup procedures take longer if variables are used in the destination folder path and the contents of the variable change with time.

Special Variables

FileBack PC uses certain variables internally, and its behavior can be changed by modifying the values of these variables:

You will not see these variables or their contents in the edit fields for the folder exclusion list or the file specification list.  They are added at the time a backup job is run instead.  These variables can be used to globally exclude a folder or files from all backup entries, or even include files in all backup jobs.

Both the PREFILESPEC and POSTFILESPEC variables are provided because the file specification line is processed from left to right, with specifications further to the right taking precedence over those on the left.  The PREFILESPEC specification can be overridden by either the backup job file specification or the POSTFILESPEC variable, while the POSTFILESPEC variable cannot be overridden at all.