ignore

An ignore file specifies intentionally files that nest should ignore. Each line in an ignore file specifies a pattern.

The syntax of nest's ignore file is a superset of the .gitignore pattern format.

Pattern format

• A blank line matches no files, so it can serve as a separator for readability.

• A line starting with # serves as a comment. Put a backslash ("\") in front of the first hash for patterns that begin with a hash.

• Trailing spaces are ignored unless they are quoted with backslash ("\").

• An optional prefix "!" which negates the pattern; any matching file excluded by a previous pattern will become included again. It is not possible to re-include a file if a parent directory of that file is excluded. Git doesn't list excluded directories for performance reasons, so any patterns on contained files have no effect, no matter where they are defined. Put a backslash ("\") in front of the first "!" for patterns that begin with a literal "!", for example, "\!important!.txt".

• The slash / is used as the directory separator. Separators may occur at the beginning, middle or end of the ignore search pattern.

• If there is a separator at the beginning or middle (or both) of the pattern, then the pattern is relative to the directory level of the particular ignore file itself. Otherwise the pattern may also match at any level below the ignore level.

• If there is a separator at the end of the pattern then the pattern will only match directories, otherwise the pattern can match both files and directories.

• For example, a pattern doc/frotz/ matches doc/frotz directory, but not a/doc/frotz directory; however frotz/ matches frotz and a/frotz that is a directory (all paths are relative from the ignore file).

• An asterisk "*" matches anything except a slash. The character "?" matches any one character except "/". The range notation, e.g. [a-zA-Z], can be used to match one of the characters in a range.

Two consecutive asterisks ("**") in patterns matched against full pathname may have special meaning:

• A leading "**" followed by a slash means match in all directories. For example, "**/foo" matches file or directory "foo" anywhere, the same as pattern "foo". "**/foo/bar" matches file or directory "bar" anywhere that is directly under directory "foo".

• A trailing "/**" matches everything inside. For example, "abc/**" matches all files inside directory "abc", relative to the location of the ignore file, with infinite depth.

• A slash followed by two consecutive asterisks then a slash matches zero or more directories. For example, "a/**/b" matches "a/b", "a/x/b", "a/x/y/b" and so on.

• Other consecutive asterisks are considered regular asterisks and will match according to the previous rules.

@extends keyword

You can import other files with the @extends keyword. The extended file must follow the same syntax.

tip

Use the @extends keyword to avoid duplicating the content of your .gitignore file.

Examples

@extends .gitignore

# exclude everything except directory foo/bar

/*

!/foo

/foo/*

!/foo/bar