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.TH "SYNCTHING-STIGNORE" "5" "Jul 28, 2018" "v0.14" "Syncthing"
.SH NAME
syncthing-stignore \- Prevent files from being synchronized to other nodes
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.SH SYNOPSIS
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.sp
.nf
.ft C
\&.stignore
.ft P
.fi
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.SH DESCRIPTION
.sp
If some files should not be synchronized to other devices, a file called
\fB\&.stignore\fP can be created containing file patterns to ignore. The
\fB\&.stignore\fP file must be placed in the root of the folder. The
\fB\&.stignore\fP file itself will never be synced to other devices, although it can
\fB#include\fP files that \fIare\fP synchronized between devices. All patterns are
relative to the folder root.
.sp
\fBNOTE:\fP
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Note that ignored files can block removal of an otherwise empty directory.
See below for the (?d) prefix to allow deletion of ignored files.
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.SH PATTERNS
.sp
The \fB\&.stignore\fP file contains a list of file or path patterns. The
\fIfirst\fP pattern that matches will decide the fate of a given file.
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.IP \(bu 2
Regular file names match themselves, i.e. the pattern \fBfoo\fP matches
the files \fBfoo\fP, \fBsubdir/foo\fP as well as any directory named
\fBfoo\fP\&. Spaces are treated as regular characters.
.IP \(bu 2
Asterisk matches zero or more characters in a filename, but does not
match the directory separator. \fBte*st\fP matches \fBtest\fP,
\fBsubdir/telerest\fP but not \fBtele/rest\fP\&.
.IP \(bu 2
Double asterisk matches as above, but also directory separators.
\fBte**st\fP matches \fBtest\fP, \fBsubdir/telerest\fP and
\fBtele/sub/dir/rest\fP\&.
.IP \(bu 2
Question mark matches a single character that is not the directory
separator. \fBte??st\fP matches \fBtebest\fP but not \fBteb/st\fP or
\fBtest\fP\&.
.IP \(bu 2
Characters enclosed in square brackets \fB[]\fP are interpreted as a character range \fB[a\-z]\fP\&. Before using this syntax you should have a basic understanding of regular expression character classes.
.IP \(bu 2
A pattern beginning with \fB/\fP matches in the current directory only.
\fB/foo\fP matches \fBfoo\fP but not \fBsubdir/foo\fP\&.
.IP \(bu 2
A pattern beginning with \fB#include\fP results in loading patterns
from the named file. It is an error for a file to not exist or be
included more than once. Note that while this can be used to include
patterns from a file in a subdirectory, the patterns themselves are
still relative to the folder \fIroot\fP\&. Example:
\fB#include more\-patterns.txt\fP\&.
.IP \(bu 2
A pattern beginning with a \fB!\fP prefix negates the pattern: matching files
are \fIincluded\fP (that is, \fInot\fP ignored). This can be used to override
more general patterns that follow. Note that files in ignored
directories can not be re\-included this way. This is due to the fact
that Syncthing stops scanning when it reaches an ignored directory,
so doesn’t know what files it might contain.
.IP \(bu 2
A pattern beginning with a \fB(?i)\fP prefix enables case\-insensitive pattern
matching. \fB(?i)test\fP matches \fBtest\fP, \fBTEST\fP and \fBtEsT\fP\&. The
\fB(?i)\fP prefix can be combined with other patterns, for example the
pattern \fB(?i)!picture*.png\fP indicates that \fBPicture1.PNG\fP should
be synchronized. On Mac OS and Windows, patterns are always case\-insensitive.
.IP \(bu 2
A pattern beginning with a \fB(?d)\fP prefix enables removal of these files if
they are preventing directory deletion. This prefix should be used by any OS
generated files which you are happy to be removed.
.IP \(bu 2
A line beginning with \fB//\fP is a comment and has no effect.
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Windows does not support escaping \fB\e[foo \- bar\e]\fP\&.
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.sp
\fBNOTE:\fP
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Prefixes can be specified in any order (e.g. “(?d)(?i)”), but cannot be in a
single pair of parentheses (not “(?di)”).
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.SH EXAMPLE
.sp
Given a directory layout:
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.nf
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\&.DS_Store
foo
foofoo
bar/
    baz
    quux
    quuz
bar2/
    baz
    frobble
My Pictures/
    Img15.PNG
.ft P
.fi
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.sp
and an \fB\&.stignore\fP file with the contents:
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.sp
.nf
.ft C
(?d).DS_Store
!frobble
!quuz
foo
*2
qu*
(?i)my pictures
.ft P
.fi
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.sp
all files and directories called “foo”, ending in a “2” or starting with
“qu” will be ignored. The end result becomes:
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.sp
.nf
.ft C
\&.DS_Store     # ignored, will be deleted if gets in the way of parent directory removal
foo           # ignored, matches "foo"
foofoo        # synced, does not match "foo" but would match "foo*" or "*foo"
bar/          # synced
    baz       # synced
    quux      # ignored, matches "qu*"
    quuz      # synced, matches "qu*" but is excluded by the preceding "!quuz"
bar2/         # ignored, matched "*2"
    baz       # ignored, due to parent being ignored
    frobble   # ignored, due to parent being ignored; "!frobble" doesn\(aqt help
My Pictures/  # ignored, matched case insensitive "(?i)my pictures" pattern
    Img15.PNG # ignored, due to parent being ignored
.ft P
.fi
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.sp
\fBNOTE:\fP
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Please note that directory patterns ending with a slash
\fBsome/directory/\fP matches the content of the directory, but not the
directory itself. If you want the pattern to match the directory and its
content, make sure it does not have a \fB/\fP at the end of the pattern.
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.SH EFFECTS ON “IN SYNC” STATUS
.sp
Currently the effects on who is in sync with what can be a bit confusing
when using ignore patterns. This should be cleared up in a future
version…
.sp
Assume two devices, Alice and Bob, where Alice has 100 files to share, but
Bob ignores 25 of these. From Alice’s point of view Bob will become
about 75% in sync (the actual number depends on the sizes of the
individual files) and remain in “Syncing” state even though it is in
fact not syncing anything (\fI\%issue #623\fP <\fBhttps://github.com/syncthing/syncthing/issues/623\fP>). From Bob’s point of view, it’s
100% up to date but will show fewer files in both the local and global
view.
.sp
If Bob adds files that have already been synced to the ignore list, they
will remain in the “global” view but disappear from the “local” view.
The end result is more files in the global folder than in the local,
but still 100% in sync (\fI\%issue #624\fP <\fBhttps://github.com/syncthing/syncthing/issues/624\fP>). From Alice’s point of view, Bob
will remain 100% in sync until the next reconnect, because Bob has
already announced that he has the files that are now suddenly ignored.
.SH AUTHOR
The Syncthing Authors
.SH COPYRIGHT
2014-2018, The Syncthing Authors
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