Since we still don’t have incremental backups, I’m wondering if there’s a way to exclude directories from the backups in VMs. E.g.:
/var/lib/packages in Debian
$HOME/.cache
folder with Docker images from Docker Hub
folders resulting from git clone commands
etc.
A way to do this is with “storageVMs” that connect to the corresponding VM with NFS and qvm-connect-tcp. And exclude the storageVMs from the backups. But it feels overcomplicated.
Another workaround is to store the data you want to back up in app qubes based on minimal templates, and avoid running programs (e.g., web browsers) in those qubes that generate large files in directories that will be backed up. Then you can just back up the minimal data qubes most of the time, which should be smaller.
I don’t understand what the minimal template is for? The template choice / size / type has no consequences if you just backup an AppVM without its template.
Not sure if this is still the case, but I think in the past, non-minimal templates would cause app qubes based on them to have more dot files in the user’s home directory compared to minimal templates.