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6 syntax for Mercurial ignore files
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9 :Author: Vadim Gelfer <vadim.gelfer@gmail.com>
10 :Organization: Mercurial
12 :Manual group: Mercurial Manual
17 The Mercurial system uses a file called ``.hgignore`` in the root
18 directory of a repository to control its behavior when it searches
19 for files that it is not currently tracking.
24 The working directory of a Mercurial repository will often contain
25 files that should not be tracked by Mercurial. These include backup
26 files created by editors and build products created by compilers.
27 These files can be ignored by listing them in a ``.hgignore`` file in
28 the root of the working directory. The ``.hgignore`` file must be
29 created manually. It is typically put under version control, so that
30 the settings will propagate to other repositories with push and pull.
32 An untracked file is ignored if its path relative to the repository
33 root directory, or any prefix path of that path, is matched against
34 any pattern in ``.hgignore``.
36 For example, say we have an an untracked file, ``file.c``, at
37 ``a/b/file.c`` inside our repository. Mercurial will ignore ``file.c``
38 if any pattern in ``.hgignore`` matches ``a/b/file.c``, ``a/b`` or ``a``.
40 In addition, a Mercurial configuration file can reference a set of
41 per-user or global ignore files. See the |hgrc(5)|_ man page for details
42 of how to configure these files. Look for the "ignore" entry in the
45 To control Mercurial's handling of files that it manages, see the
46 |hg(1)|_ man page. Look for the "``-I``" and "``-X``" options.
51 An ignore file is a plain text file consisting of a list of patterns,
52 with one pattern per line. Empty lines are skipped. The "``#``"
53 character is treated as a comment character, and the "``\``" character
54 is treated as an escape character.
56 Mercurial supports several pattern syntaxes. The default syntax used
57 is Python/Perl-style regular expressions.
59 To change the syntax used, use a line of the following form::
63 where ``NAME`` is one of the following:
66 Regular expression, Python/Perl syntax.
70 The chosen syntax stays in effect when parsing all patterns that
71 follow, until another syntax is selected.
73 Neither glob nor regexp patterns are rooted. A glob-syntax pattern of
74 the form "``*.c``" will match a file ending in "``.c``" in any directory,
75 and a regexp pattern of the form "``\.c$``" will do the same. To root a
76 regexp pattern, start it with "``^``".
81 Here is an example ignore file. ::
90 # switch to regexp syntax.
96 Vadim Gelfer <vadim.gelfer@gmail.com>
98 Mercurial was written by Matt Mackall <mpm@selenic.com>.
106 This manual page is copyright 2006 Vadim Gelfer.
107 Mercurial is copyright 2005-2009 Matt Mackall.
108 Free use of this software is granted under the terms of the GNU General
109 Public License (GPL).
111 .. include:: common.txt