Specifying Directories and Their Contents

A typical use of an ignore pattern is to have stat -x (or the External search in the File Browser) ignore temporary build directories. That is, you want the list of external objects that AccuRev returns to ignore both the directories themselves and all the files within those directories. If the build directories are named build_001, build_002, and so on, you might be tempted to use this pattern:

build_???/*

But this patterns matches only the contents of the build_??? directories and not the directories themselves. (Note that in these examples, a directory matching the pattern that is a subdirectory of another matching directory will be excluded. For example, in a structure like build_001/build_002, the build_002 directory will be excluded, but the build_001 directory will not.)

Instead, to exclude build directories such as build_001, build_002 and their contents, specify the ignore pattern as follows:

build_???/

(The pattern */build_???* would match both build_001 and build_002 directories and their contents, but it also might coincidentally match names of some source files, such as lib/build_end.c.)

When using path separators, keep the following rules in mind:

•	You can use Windows style backslashes (\) or UNIX/Linux style slashes (/) as path separators in your patterns. However:

•	If a pattern contains at least one slash (/), then / is treated as the path separator, regardless of platform, and \ (if any) is treated as an escape character. For example, \? matches ?.

•	If a pattern contains only backslashes (\), AccuRev assumes a Windows path and \ is treated as the path separator. There is no provision for escape sequences in this situation.

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When you start a pattern with a slash (/), AccuRev applies that pattern to that directory only. For example, if you specify an ignore pattern of /*.exe at the workspace root, stat -x returns all external objects in the workspace; only files with a .exe extension at the workspace root would be excluded. On the other hand, if you specified an ignore pattern of *.exe (no slash) at the workspace root, stat -x would exclude files with a .exe extension in any workspace directory, including those at the workspace root (the same as if you specified recursion by prepending /**/ to the pattern).

•	A slash after a directory name (daily_build/, for example) matches the directory itself and its contents.