velero/site/content/docs/main/namespace-glob-patterns.md

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Namespace Glob Patterns	docs

When using --include-namespaces and --exclude-namespaces flags with backup and restore commands, you can use glob patterns to match multiple namespaces.

Note: If the resolution of namespace patterns results in no namespaces, the backup will succeed with a warning.

Supported Patterns

Velero supports the following glob pattern characters:

• * - Matches any sequence of characters

  velero backup create my-backup --include-namespaces "app-*"
  # Matches: app-prod, app-staging, app-dev, etc.
  

• ? - Matches exactly one character

  velero backup create my-backup --include-namespaces "ns?"
  # Matches: ns1, ns2, nsa, but NOT ns10
  

• [abc] - Matches any single character in the brackets

  velero backup create my-backup --include-namespaces "ns[123]"
  # Matches: ns1, ns2, ns3
  

• [a-z] - Matches any single character in the range

  velero backup create my-backup --include-namespaces "ns[a-c]"
  # Matches: nsa, nsb, nsc
  

Unsupported Patterns

The following patterns are not supported and will cause validation errors:

• ** - Consecutive asterisks
• | - Alternation (regex operator)
• () - Grouping (regex operators)
• ! - Negation
• {} - Brace expansion
• , - Comma (used in brace expansion)

Special Cases

• * alone means "all namespaces" and is not expanded
• Empty brackets [] are invalid
• Unmatched or unclosed brackets will cause validation errors

Examples

Combine patterns with include and exclude flags:

# Backup all production namespaces except test
velero backup create prod-backup \
  --include-namespaces "*-prod" \
  --exclude-namespaces "test-*"

# Backup specific numbered namespaces
velero backup create numbered-backup \
  --include-namespaces "app-[0-9]"

# Restore namespaces matching multiple patterns
velero restore create my-restore \
  --from-backup my-backup \
  --include-namespaces "frontend-*,backend-*"