Files

A backup can include files and folders from your project alongside — or instead of — your databases. This page covers what gets picked up and how to fine-tune it.

Include roots

List the directories (or individual files) to archive:

1'files' => [
2    'include' => [
3        base_path('app'),
4        base_path('.env'),
5        storage_path('app/public'),
6    ],
7],

Each file is stored in the archive under a files/ prefix that mirrors its absolute path (e.g. files/var/www/app/Models/User.php), so entries from several roots never collide and map back cleanly on restore.

Exclusions

1'files' => [
2    'exclude' => [
3        base_path('vendor'),      // path prefix
4        base_path('node_modules'),
5        '*.log',                  // fnmatch glob
6        storage_path('framework'),
7    ],
8],

A pattern matches when it is a path prefix of a file, or when it matches the path (or its basename) as an fnmatch glob. This lets you exclude whole directories and file types in the same list.

Hidden files

1'files' => ['include_hidden' => true],  // include dotfiles like .env

Set to false to skip dotfiles and dot-directories.

Symlinks

1'files' => ['follow_symlinks' => false],

• false (default) — a symlink is recorded in the manifest as link metadata (its target), without archiving the target's contents. On restore the symlink is recreated. This preserves link semantics without duplicating data.
• true — links are followed and the target's contents are archived as regular files.

Compression

Compression is applied to the whole archive (not per file):

1'compression' => ['algorithm' => 'gzip', 'level' => 6],

Compression is streamed, so memory stays flat regardless of archive size.

Archive format & limits

Backups are packaged as a streaming TAR archive with GNU extensions, written by the package itself (not PharData). This means:

• No 8 GiB per-file limit — large database dumps or media files are supported via GNU base-256 size fields.
• No 100-byte path limit — long paths use GNU long-name entries.
• Flat memory — reading and writing are streamed in 1 MiB chunks, so archive and file size do not affect memory usage.

The archives are standard and readable by GNU tar / bsdtar.

Files-only backups

1'profiles' => [
2    'uploads' => [
3        'type' => 'files',
4        'files' => ['include' => [storage_path('app/public')]],
5        'destinations' => ['s3'],
6    ],
7],