Include/Exclude Filter?

[valiante]

Hi,

I've tried several connotations of filters to achieve what I'm trying to do
and have searched the forum for an answer, but have drawn a blank, so my
sincerest apologies if this has already been answered elsewhere.

Basically I'd like to to synchronise My Documents, My Pictures, My Music and
My Videos, but exclude all other subfolders of My Documents. Being an XP
machine, My Pictures, etc are subfolders of My Documents.

I have tried including just My Pictures, etc, but this leaves out any files
within the root of My Documents itself. If I include any wildcard
combinations, it seems to re-include all other subfolders, even if I use \*.*
as an include (which to my mind should refer to files only, not folders).

I'm sure it's possible and just something I'm missing, so any advice would be
welcome.

Thanks!

[Zenju]

Two solutions: 1. use "my documents" as synchronization base folder and use as
include filter "My Pictures, My Music and My Videos" or 2. setup multiple
folder pairs using three pairs, one for each folder "My Pictures, My Music and
My Videos"

If you additionally want to sync files located in "my documents", you'll need
another folder pair or sync job.

> use \*.* as an include
This is only working for file names that contain a "."

[valiante]

Thanks for your reply.

I tried solution 1, with "My Documents" as the base folder and the three
subfolders as includes. Unfortunately this excluded any files directly in the
"My Documents" folder. I then added \*.* as an include and this put all the
other subfolders back as well, which I don't want to sync. I realise I could
use multiple pairs / configs but I'm trying to avoid that as it's more work to
maintain, should I wish to make any changes.

Is this not possible with a single config and set of includes / excludes?

[Zenju]

I fear not, since *.* matches all subfolders, which will loosen the
restriction on the individual folders. What's possible with a single
configuration is:

Incude: *
Exclude: "all subfolder names except MyPictues, MyMusik, MyVideo"

[valiante]

Indeed, I considered including all (*) and excluding the other subfolders, but
my only concern with that is if other folders are created (e.g. by an
application install) they will be included in the sync until I exclude them,
something which I don't want to have to do as this will be a scheduled task to
run on a regular basis.

If this can't be done with include rules, then I think the only option I'm
left with is to create four folder pairs and have a scheduled task / batch
file to run all four - not ideal but it'll work.

Here's a feature suggestion from me then: Make it possible to "include" all
files in a given folder, but not subfolders (perhaps change the recursive
nature of *.*)

Thanks for your quick responses though!!

[Zenju]

> create four folder pairs
Two pairs is sufficient. The first pair handles "MyPictues, MyMusik, MyVideo"
The second pair handles "My Documents" without subfolders

>Make it possible to "include" all files in a given folder
Actually I don't see a way how to do this, without a more complex concept of a
naming filter.
This more complex concept then will probably require more effort than just
using two folder pairs.
There's no easy win in this case.

[mtoka]

I am on a mac and having difficulty getting the filters to work.
I want to stop syncing the below divided into files and folders

(Folders)
.wdmc
Large Videos


(Files)
Thumbs.db
._Thumbs.db
.Picasa.ini
.DS_Store

The below filters did not work. I still get them in the comparison.
/.DS_Store
/.wdmc/
/Thumbs.db
/.Thumbs.db
/.Picasa.ini



Another thing.
How can I stop synching any file name that starts with a dot '.'?


Thanks

[byu777]

Not sure if there has been any more development in this area but I also noticed that I cannot stop syncing any files with file name starting with a dot '.'.

I tried syncing all my files from my Dropbox folder and none of these filters work to exclude .dropbox.cache and .dropbox.attr:

.*
.dropbox.*
.dropbox.cache
.dropbox.attr

More interestingly, even

dropbox.cache
dropbox.attr

won't work. It seems filesync is blind to files with a dot at the front of the filename and allows them to get in no matter what.

[Zenju]

Not sure if there has been any more development in this area but I also noticed that I cannot stop syncing any files with file name starting with a dot '.'.

I tried syncing all my files from my Dropbox folder and none of these filters work to exclude .dropbox.cache and .dropbox.attr:

.*
.dropbox.*
.dropbox.cache
.dropbox.attr

More interestingly, even

dropbox.cache
dropbox.attr

won't work. It seems filesync is blind to files with a dot at the front of the filename and allows them to get in no matter what.

Looks like the syntax is not correct. See the help file chapter "exclude items" or better yet, exclude the files via context menu from the main dialog and let FFS handle the syntax itself.