This is quite similar to gitignore. If a pattern is suffixed by an
exclamation mark and match a file that was previously matched by a
regular pattern, the match is cancelled. Notably, this can be used
with `--exclude-file` to cancel the exclusion of some files.
Like for gitignore, once a directory is excluded, it is not possible
to include files inside the directory. For example, a user wanting to
only keep `*.c` in some directory should not use:
~/work
!~/work/*.c
But:
~/work/*
!~/work/*.c
I didn't write documentation or changelog entry. I would like to get
feedback if this is the right approach for excluding/including files
at will for backups. I use something like this as an exclude file to
backup my home:
$HOME/**/*
!$HOME/Documents
!$HOME/code
!$HOME/.emacs.d
!$HOME/games
# [...]
node_modules
*~
*.o
*.lo
*.pyc
# [...]
$HOME/code/linux/*
!$HOME/code/linux/.git
# [...]
There are some limitations for this change:
- Patterns are not mixed accross methods: patterns from file are
handled first and if a file is excluded with this method, it's not
possible to reinclude it with `--exclude !something`.
- Patterns starting with `!` are now interpreted as a negative
pattern. I don't think anyone was relying on that.
- The whole list of patterns is walked for each match. We may
optimize later by exiting early if we know no pattern is starting
with `!`.
Fix#233
Leo R. Lundgren
Alexander Neumann
Michael Eischer
Vincent Bernat