Where is "Date Last Matched" stored?

Mr. Noodle:

I have rules to copy files from my home directory to MDWBackup directory. The link is here http://imgur.com/YFStO

Thanks again for helping with that.

I had Hazel back up the entire home directory on Oct 1. Now I want Hazel to backup files that have changed since Oct 1. 'Date last matched is after specific date' causes Hazel to copy these files repeatedly. So, I intended to use 'date last modified is after date last matched.' But some of the files don't copy. In the preview window, these not-copied files do not have a 'date last matched' entry. When I look at the metadata with MDLS, I don't see a kMDItem for 'date last matched.' I was thinking of using MDUTIL to reset all of the files' kMDItem 'date last matched' to Oct 1 in order to make the rule work.

Some, but not all, of the files that are missing 'date last matched' were copied from the Mobile Documents Directory in my Library to an identically named directory in my Documents Folder so they would be backed up in this process. Made me wonder if iCloud documents are not allowed to have 'date last matched' metadata.

1. Where is 'date last matched stored?'
2. Is there a more direct (and less resource-intensive) way to create incremental backups?

Thanks again,
M.

Date last matched is Hazel specific ("matching" a file is a Hazel-specific concept) and is stored in Hazel's own database. That said, I'd suggest using the Sync action as it's simpler to use and made for this type of case. Search the forums and check the help on how to use it.

Okay. Thanks.

I used sync but I must have not had the criteria correct because it wanted to sync everything. I'll try again.

Kind regards,
M.

Keep in mind having Hazel go through your whole home directory can be very resource intensive. If you want to back up that much data, I'd recommend maybe doing it on a schedule instead (use the "current time" attribute). The sync action itself only copies over the minimal data (parts that changed) so that part is relatively efficient.

Thank you, Mr. Noodle. I will let you know how it works out.

M.