Improving restic documentation regarding --excludes and --excludes-file

I just did battle with getting my exclude-files right, and I found it difficult to understand how things work based on the Excluding Files documentation in doc/040_backup.rst. I notice in the forums that there has been some confusion on this in the past.

While it’s fresh in my mind and I have what I think is an accurate mental model of what’s going on, I’d like to take a crack at rewriting this section. Should I give it a go? Should it be discussed here first? Should I file an issue? Make a pull request directly containing a specific complete proposal? Just raise general concerns that might be worth addressing (here or in an issue)?

I’m a long time restic user, but new to the forums, so not sure how best to proceed.

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Absolutely! Having your thoughts fresh in mind is great. I’m curious to see how you think these things can be explained in a simpler way, easier to understand (without at the same time becoming a big wall of text).

I think it would be good if you first open an issue (or not, if there is already an issue that you think matches this topic very well, and your work would address that issue), where you outline what you think are the problems, and your ideas about how to address them. This opens up for discussions and comments.

The PR is separate from that and you can start it now already if you want to show an example of your thoughts, but be prepared to make changes in case there’s discussions that change the direction somewhat.

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