A simple ignore file processor for Go that evaluates patterns similar to .gitignore syntax.

go get github.com/jimschubert/ignore

Given an ignore file, for example /your/directory/.gitignore:

# This is an example ignore file

# Match everything below this directory
path/to/dir/**

# Match all Test files with all extensions
**/*Test*.*

# Match files with one character filename and extension
**/?.?

# Match all files beginning with first or second
**/{first*,second*}

This file can be read and evaluated like this:

processor, _ := NewProcessor()
var allow bool
allow, _ = processor.AllowsFile("path/to/dir/ignored") // = false
allow, _ = processor.AllowsFile("other/path/to/dir/ignored") // = false
allow, _ = processor.AllowsFile("nested/test/SomeTest.java") // = false
allow, _ = processor.AllowsFile("nested/a.b") // = false
allow, _ = processor.AllowsFile("nested/abc.d") // = true
allow, _ = processor.AllowsFile("nested/first.txt") // = false
allow, _ = processor.AllowsFile("nested/second.txt") // = false
allow, _ = processor.AllowsFile("nested/third.txt") // = true

The NewProcessor function accepts functional parameters as defined in the ignore package.

To specify a custom path for the ignore file:

processor, _ := NewProcessor(
    WithIgnoreFilePath("/your/directory/.ignore"),
)

Currently only Git's ignore rules are supported. As new strategies are added they can be targeted like this:

processor, _ := NewProcessor(
    WithGitignoreStrategy(),
    WithIgnoreFilePath("/your/directory/.ignore"),
)

File patterns of the default ignore strategy follow closely to that of .gitignore.

• Rooted file pattern: /*.ext
  • Must exist in the root of the directory
  • Must begin with a forward slash /
  • Supports * or *.ext pattern
• Directory Rule
  • Matches against directories (dir/) or directory contents (dir/**)
  • Must end in /
• File Rule
  • Matches an individual filename or filename.ext

Similar to .gitignore processing, a double asterisk (**) can be used in place of a directory to indicate recursion.

For example:

path\to\**\file

matches both path\to\some\file and path\to\some\nested\file.

Single asterisks (*) match any characters within a pattern.

For example:

path\to\*file

matches both path\to\your_file and path\to\my_file, as well as path\to\file.

Processing ignore patterns in-process avoids spawning external programs and provides a Go-native way to evaluate file matching rules.

Apache 2.0. See License.