Extending functionality to iCloud Drive Sync

[rgrvlsk]

This tool is awesome. I can finally forget about excluding new projects manually and give my backup drive a well deserved break. Good job!

It would be amazing if you could do the same with iCloud Drive Sync. I know its implementation is really stupid, when compared to Time Machine, but it would make much more sense to have these exclusions automated aswell. I don't know if there's an exclusion list, but the node_modules.nosync symlink method is really inconvenient for every day use.

Maybe you can come up with something. Cheers!

[stevegrunwell]

Hey @keystorm,

Great idea! I don't personally use iCloud Drive Sync myself, but there definitely seems to be a lot of overlap between blocking dev dependencies from Time Machine and iCloud.

This AskDifferent thread contains a bunch of iCloud Drive exclusion patterns, but it may be as simple as dropping an empty .nosync file in place.

I think it's worth thinking about whether or not this should be default behavior or something that's configurable (perhaps via the Asimov configuration file proposed in #27?). It's also making me think "hey, what if we also added support for excluding development dependencies from cloud other cloud backup services, too?"

Damn, now you've got me thinking! 😉

[rgrvlsk]

Happy to hear that. Unfortunately in my experience (High Sierra until yesterday) dropping an empty .nosync file won't work. Appending .nosync to the filename however, different story. But reeeeeally cumbersome and forces you to symlink node_modules and maybe add the new folder to gitignore... A real disaster.

But if you find a less disruptive way. And with automation. Man, that would be really something. Because if you think it's bad saving those folders to an external device. you can't begin to imagine how painful it is to have them synced up for every single project. Plus crashes, plus thermal throttling... It's insane for a cloud backup.

So let me know. I'll be happy to test if needed!

[tomitrescak]

This would be amazing!

[django23]

@rgrvlsk @tomitrescak thanks for the patience on this one. 🙏

Being straight with you: I'm not planning to build this. Time Machine gives Asimov one clean, documented lever (tmutil addexclusion, an xattr on the directory). iCloud has no equivalent — the only working method is still renaming to *.nosync and symlinking, which means Asimov would have to move your files around. That's a very different risk profile from setting an attribute, and not one I want to take on by default.

If Apple ships a real exclusion API for iCloud Drive, this goes straight back on the roadmap. Leaving it open and parked so it stays findable, rather than closing something plenty of people clearly want.