File/folder ignore using a file (similar to .gitignore mechanism)

Discuss new features and functions
Posts: 1
Joined: 4 Oct 2024

arc12

Allowing users to use the "gitignore" mechanism could be useful - i.e allowing files (I'll call them ".ffsignore") to be placed anywhere in the filesystem which mark which folders/files should be ignored relative to the position of the .ffsignore file. This would be in addition to the current mechanism of specifying ignore information in FFS config.
Maybe .ffsignore would only apply to the source side of the comparison.

I believe there are several practical advantages to having this approach available:
- if folders containing .ffsignore files are moved then the ignore rules remain good.
- for some tasks, the user knows which files/folders should be ignored when creating then. This certainly applies when working with software code, e.g. when things are in a git repository. To be able to specify the ignore details at this time will be more reliable (less error prone) and less work than checking the FFS UI when running a sync.
- in cases where several FFS configurations are used over the same file system, it saves replicating ignore rules in multiple configurations. (I use different FFS sync models with different schedules to capture both history/changes and to maintain a true master).

Just an idea for a new feature, which I think would be helpful and could be easy to implement, given the existing logic.

Thanks for FFS!
Cheers, Adam
Posts: 1
Joined: 29 Dec 2025

Nit_Ram

I second this feature.
To provide some context: I work on Unity projects. These have a folder called Library. This folder contains hundreds of thousands of files that are not crucial for the project. These files are auto-generated when a project is opened for the first time.
Backing up my projects with FFS means millions of unnecessary files are copied.
I can't realistically ignore all folders called 'Library', as there is a real chance that an actual library will be included in our games or that there are other folders with this name, meaning that other crucial files would not be backed up. The only solution I can see would be a .ffsignore file in which I could specify relatively to the file which folders should be ignored.

Cheers, Martin