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restic/changelog/unreleased/issue-233
Vincent Bernat 2ee07ded2b filter: ability to use negative patterns
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
2022-03-20 13:33:08 +01:00

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Text

Enhancement: Add negative patterns for include/exclude
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.
It works similarly to `gitignore`, with the same limitation: once a
directory is excluded, it is not possible to include files inside the
directory.
Example of use (as an exclude pattern for backup):
$HOME/**/*
!$HOME/Documents
!$HOME/code
!$HOME/.emacs.d
!$HOME/games
# [...]
node_modules
*~
*.o
*.lo
*.pyc
# [...]
$HOME/code/linux/*
!$HOME/code/linux/.git
# [...]
https://github.com/restic/restic/issues/233
https://github.com/restic/restic/pull/2311