Exclude rules

DiffFork uses a config file to control its behavior when it scans for files that it is to exclude. Excluded files will not be diffed and displayed.

To edit the config file, choose Preferences... from the application menu, and switch to "Folder Diff".

Syntax

The config file consists of a list of patterns, with one pattern a line. The # character is treated as a comment character.

Two types of pattern syntax can be used: glob and regular expression. To change the syntax, use a line of the following form:

syntax: TYPE

TYPE is one of the following:

  1. glob: Shell-style glob, the "*" character matches any string.
  2. regexp: Regular expression.

The assigned syntax stays in effect until another type is specified. You can also assign a syntax for a pattern using prefix, which overrides the global syntax. An Example:

regexp: (^|/)\.

The Performance Effect

Applying exclude rules on each file takes time, which may slow down the diff process dramatically. Set up the rules with care to avoid the performance issue.

Regular expression reference

The supported regular expression syntax is that defined by ICU (International Components for Unicode: http://www.icu-project.org). For more information, please see the ICU User Guide: http://userguide.icu-project.org/strings/regexp