.\" Man page generated from reStructuredText. . . .nr rst2man-indent-level 0 . .de1 rstReportMargin \\$1 \\n[an-margin] level \\n[rst2man-indent-level] level margin: \\n[rst2man-indent\\n[rst2man-indent-level]] - \\n[rst2man-indent0] \\n[rst2man-indent1] \\n[rst2man-indent2] .. .de1 INDENT .\" .rstReportMargin pre: . RS \\$1 . nr rst2man-indent\\n[rst2man-indent-level] \\n[an-margin] . nr rst2man-indent-level +1 .\" .rstReportMargin post: .. .de UNINDENT . RE .\" indent \\n[an-margin] .\" old: \\n[rst2man-indent\\n[rst2man-indent-level]] .nr rst2man-indent-level -1 .\" new: \\n[rst2man-indent\\n[rst2man-indent-level]] .in \\n[rst2man-indent\\n[rst2man-indent-level]]u .. .TH "SYNCTHING-STIGNORE" "5" "Mar 21, 2024" "v1.27.4" "Syncthing" .SH NAME syncthing-stignore \- Prevent files from being synchronized to other nodes .SH SYNOPSIS .INDENT 0.0 .INDENT 3.5 .sp .nf .ft C \&.stignore .ft P .fi .UNINDENT .UNINDENT .SH DESCRIPTION .sp If some files should not be synchronized to (or from) 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 synced folder (files in other locations are not applied). 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 synced folder root. The contents of the \fB\&.stignore\fP file must be UTF\-8 encoded. .sp \fBNOTE:\fP .INDENT 0.0 .INDENT 3.5 Note that ignored files can block removal of an otherwise empty directory. See below for the (?d) prefix to allow deletion of ignored files. .UNINDENT .UNINDENT .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. .INDENT 0.0 .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, except for leading and trailing spaces, which are automatically trimmed. .IP \(bu 2 \fBAsterisk\fP (\fB*\fP) matches zero or more characters in a filename, but does not match the directory separator. \fBte*ne\fP matches \fBtelephone\fP, \fBsubdir/telephone\fP but not \fBtele/phone\fP\&. .IP \(bu 2 \fBDouble asterisk\fP (\fB**\fP) matches as above, but also directory separators. \fBte**ne\fP matches \fBtelephone\fP, \fBsubdir/telephone\fP and \fBtele/sub/dir/phone\fP\&. .IP \(bu 2 \fBQuestion mark\fP (\fB?\fP) 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 \fBSquare brackets\fP (\fB[]\fP) denote a character range: \fB[a\-z]\fP matches any lower case character. .IP \(bu 2 \fBCurly brackets\fP (\fB{}\fP) denote a set of comma separated alternatives: \fB{banana,pineapple}\fP matches either \fBbanana\fP or \fBpineapple\fP\&. .IP \(bu 2 \fBBackslash\fP (\fB\e\fP) “escapes” a special character so that it loses its special meaning. For example, \fB\e{banana\e}\fP matches \fB{banana}\fP exactly and does not denote a set of alternatives as above. .sp \fBNOTE:\fP .INDENT 2.0 .INDENT 3.5 Escaped characters are not supported on Windows, where \fB\e\fP is the path separator. If you still need to match files that have square or curly brackets in their names, one possible workaround is to replace them with \fB?\fP, which will then match any character. For example, you can type \fB?banana?\fP to match both \fB[banana]\fP and \fB{banana}\fP, and so on. .UNINDENT .UNINDENT .IP \(bu 2 A pattern beginning with \fB/\fP matches in the root of the synced folder 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 synced folder \fIroot\fP\&. Example: \fB#include more\-patterns.txt\fP\&. .sp Any \fB#include\fP directives inside a file loaded by \fB#include\fP require paths specified relative to the directory containing the loaded file, rather than the synchronised root directory. .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. .sp \fBNOTE:\fP .INDENT 2.0 .INDENT 3.5 Negated patterns that can match items below the folder root will cause Syncthing to traverse otherwise ignored directories. If the \fI\%watcher\fP is enabled, those directories will also be watched. Directories ignored before the first negated pattern can however be safely skipped, since the first matching pattern wins. For example: .INDENT 0.0 .INDENT 3.5 .sp .nf .ft C /foo /bar !baz * .ft P .fi .UNINDENT .UNINDENT .sp The directories \fBfoo\fP and \fBbar\fP will be entirely ignored. However any other directories present must be scanned entirely to find any items named \fIbaz\fP, despite the fact that they will be ignored due to the \fB*\fP\&. As a special case, top\-level rooted patterns (e.g. \fB!/foo\fP) do not cause this behaviour: .INDENT 0.0 .INDENT 3.5 .sp .nf .ft C !/baz * .ft P .fi .UNINDENT .UNINDENT .sp In this case, only the directory \fBbaz\fP will be scanned, since everything else is ignored by the \fB*\fP pattern. .UNINDENT .UNINDENT .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. .sp \fBNOTE:\fP .INDENT 2.0 .INDENT 3.5 Prefixes can be specified in any order (e.g. \fB(?d)(?i)\fP), but cannot be combined in a single pair of parentheses like (?di)\&. .UNINDENT .UNINDENT .IP \(bu 2 A line beginning with \fB//\fP is a comment and has no effect. The same double slashes in any other place are interpreted literally, e.g. trying to do \fBfile // comment\fP will make Syncthing look for a file called \fBfile // comment\fP\&. .UNINDENT .SH EXAMPLE .sp Given a directory layout starting at the synced folder’s root: .INDENT 0.0 .INDENT 3.5 .sp .nf .ft C \&.DS_Store \&.stignore foo foofoo bar/ baz quux quuz bar2/ baz frobble My Pictures/ Img15.PNG .ft P .fi .UNINDENT .UNINDENT .sp and an \fB\&.stignore\fP file with the contents: .INDENT 0.0 .INDENT 3.5 .sp .nf .ft C (?d).DS_Store !frobble !quuz foo *2 qu* (?i)my pictures .ft P .fi .UNINDENT .UNINDENT .sp all files and directories called “foo”, ending in a “2” or starting with “qu” will be ignored. The end result becomes: .INDENT 0.0 .INDENT 3.5 .sp .nf .ft C \&.DS_Store # ignored, will be deleted if gets in the way of parent directory removal foo # ignored, matches \(dqfoo\(dq foofoo # synced, does not match \(dqfoo\(dq but would match \(dqfoo*\(dq or \(dq*foo\(dq bar/ # synced baz # synced quux # ignored, matches \(dqqu*\(dq quuz # synced, matches \(dqqu*\(dq but is excluded by the preceding \(dq!quuz\(dq bar2/ # synced, despite matching \(dq*2\(dq due to child frobble baz # ignored, due to parent being ignored frobble # synced, due to \(dq!frobble\(dq My Pictures/ # ignored, matched case insensitive \(dq(?i)my pictures\(dq pattern Img15.PNG # ignored, due to parent being ignored .ft P .fi .UNINDENT .UNINDENT .sp \fBNOTE:\fP .INDENT 0.0 .INDENT 3.5 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. .UNINDENT .UNINDENT .sp New in version 1.19.0: Default patterns can be configured which will take effect when automatically accepting a folder from a remote device. The GUI suggests same the patterns when adding a folder manually. In either case, the \fB\&.stignore\fP file is created with these defaults if none is present yet. .SH AUTHOR The Syncthing Authors .SH COPYRIGHT 2014-2019, The Syncthing Authors .\" Generated by docutils manpage writer. .