"IncludeList" (opposite of IgnoreList)

[1412]

Great app,
but is it possible to create white list file, there are some file that is needed in one pc but not in others
or in SyncIgnore accepting "!" meta?

[marktuna]

Hi team,

On a device with the read-only key of a folder, I'd like to add a .SyncIgnore that will ignore all files *except* ones that I specifically whitelist.

For example:

// Ignore everything:
*
// Except the following folders:
!data
!files

This would allow each read-only client to specify the files that they want to receive. Each client should be able to control independently which files they want to ignore and which they want to receive.

This is similar to how git works, see the man page for .gitignore (http://git-scm.com/docs/gitignore)

Thanks for all your hard work.

[GreatMarko]

What you're after is essentially a ".SyncInclude" file in addition to a ".SyncIgnore" file.

Do a quick forum search for "syncinclude", and you'll see this has been suggested before... probably worth adding to the Wishlist

[marktuna]

Ah, cool. Although I think having a single file that follows git's syntax is more powerful than having two separate files. If you have two files (SyncIgnore and SyncInclude) you have to hard-code a precedence as one entire file must be processed before the other. That's why git does it all in one file.

[GreatMarko]

Yep - fair point!

[skatebiker]

Make a *whitelist* (i.e. the reverse of the current blacklist 'SyncIgnore') which lists only the files / subfolders within the sync folder which should be synced. Other items will not be synced. To avoid conflicts, let e.g. SyncIgnore overrule which means when there is a SyncIgnore and a whitelist, the whitelist will be ignored.

Moreover, include the web interface on *all* platforms (including Android and iOS) and not on Ubuntu only. Then BTSync even running on a smartphone / tablet can be controlled from a computer or the other way around just by using a webbrowser.

[m3sgal]

Don't know if this has been requested before, but here is my own version of the request anyway. Instead of using .SyncIgnore for specifying files to ignore, why not make it a general file where you can specify which files to ignore and/or include. The format of the file should use "ignore:file_or_folder_pattern" and/or "include:file_or_folder_pattern". This way you can control the files to be synced easliy, especially when you want to deny the majority of the files/folders, and only allow a few folders to be synced.

For example, assuming we have these rules in the file:

ignore:*

include:Pictures

include:Documents

Then the synced folder initially ignores all files, but the "Pictures" and "Documents" folders are an exception, and should be synced. Similarliy, if we have these rules:

include:*

ignore:Downloads

will sync all the files, except the folder "Downloads". Ideally, the default behaviour should be include all, so no need to specify "include:*" here, but I left it explicity for clairity.

I understand that what I am asking for can be done already using .SyncIgnore, but the current format requires you to update the .SyncIgnore constantly if you want to sync specific folders out of many folders, and new folders are constantly added (which requires you to add them manually to ignore them).

As for the name for such suggested format, maybe call it ".SyncRules", ".SyncList", or ".SyncTree"?

[cannellelaurin]

Allow to specification of the files/folders to be included, not only the exclusions (using RegExp).

 

[cannellelaurin]

Don't know if this has been requested before, but here is my own version of the request anyway. Instead of using .SyncIgnore for specifying files to ignore, why not make it a general file where you can specify which files to ignore and/or include. The format of the file should use "ignore:file_or_folder_pattern" and/or "include:file_or_folder_pattern". This way you can control the files to be synced easliy, especially when you want to deny the majority of the files/folders, and only allow a few folders to be synced.

For example, assuming we have these rules in the file:

ignore:*

include:Pictures

include:Documents

Then the synced folder initially ignores all files, but the "Pictures" and "Documents" folders are an exception, and should be synced. Similarliy, if we have these rules:

include:*

ignore:Downloads

will sync all the files, except the folder "Downloads". Ideally, the default behaviour should be include all, so no need to specify "include:*" here, but I left it explicity for clairity.

I understand that what I am asking for can be done already using .SyncIgnore, but the current format requires you to update the .SyncIgnore constantly if you want to sync specific folders out of many folders, and new folders are constantly added (which requires you to add them manually to ignore them).

As for the name for such suggested format, maybe call it ".SyncRules", ".SyncList", or ".SyncTree"?

I like this, and even more with Regular Expression.

[aarzee]

I'd like an option to have the reverse of .SyncIgnore (maybe .SyncOnly?) such that only the files listed in it are synced, and not any other files.

[bittenfig]

Similar to the feature that allows you to ignore certain files, but the opposite, basically. I'd like to specify, in a text file if necessary, the specific locations that I'd like to sync. Any way to do this?

Edited March 30, 2014 by bittenfig

[bittenfig]

That was fast.......thanks!

[b0rman]

Yeah! It will be awesome feature!!! It will be possible to do CDN-like servers with CSS or JS or etc. files only!

[esebastian]

Why not doing like Git and its .gitignore and just include the capability to simply negate a pattern in .SyncIgnore? 

Edited July 1, 2014 by esebastian

[esebastian]

I agree with @marktuna. The capability to simply negate a pattern in .SyncIgnore (doing like Git and its .gitignore) will be way simpler and more powerful.

[walkme70]

I would like the ability to flip the exclude function on it head!

 

What I means - Would it be possible to make all files/folders in a given location to be all excluded. Using the same way with a *, but then have a include list instead.

This way I could script something external to include a file/folder when I choose.

[duch]

+1 for a .SyncInclude file or any equivalent whitelist mechanism.

[mrmachine]

It would be great if BitTorrent Sync allowed earlier general patterns to be negated by later more specific patterns. This would allow users to choose between whitelist and blacklist behaviour for IgnoreList and StreamList. For example:

 

# whitelist, only sync streams listed below

com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags

com.apple.ResourceFork

com.apple.metadata:kMDItemFinderComment%

 

# blacklist, sync all streams except any negated below

*

!com.apple.FinderInfo

 

Also, support for double asterisk glob pattern matching would be great. For example:

 

# IgnoreList

/Some/**/Path

 

Would match both:

 

Some/Foo/Path

Some/Foo/Bar/Path

 

It would avoid the need for users to have to know and count exactly how many levels of depth need to be ignored. For example:

 

# IgnoreList

/Some/*/Path

/Some/*/*/Path

 

Likewise, it should be possible to negate these:

 

# IgnoreList

/Some/Path/*

!/Some/Path/Foo

 

[M-Pixel]

I would also love for this to be supported!

[da_am]

I'm using Sync to sync large projects between workstations in NY, CHI, and LA (works great so far). I would really like to see a way to always have certain folders be selective sync. Could be like the .ignorelist. Maybe there is a way to do this already? And apologies if this has been talked about. It's my first week with the product.

The main reason for this is not everyone needs access to a certain set of files and it will be like that on every project. Every project will have footage broken out into sequence and shot. Not everyone will be on Sequence A but it would really be awesome to selectively sync it if a person gets put on Sequence A. 

If I put it in the ignore list, obviously it won't show up at all and if we do a selective sync then the crew will need to click on a lot of folders to sync those. The additive process is a lot more work than the subtractive. 

[arlinsandbulte]

I would LOVE to see whitelist implemented in Resilio Sync too!

And, it seems it has already been implemented in Resilio Connect.  See here: https://connect.resilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001069950-Ignoring-and-Whitelisting-Files-on-Agents-Ignore-List-

But, a similar help article for Resilio Sync does not mention whitelist: https://help.resilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/205458165-Ignoring-files-in-Sync-Ignore-List-

I tried using the * ! syntax from the Connect article in Sync, but id did not work.