File matching patterns reference
Azure DevOps Services | Azure DevOps Server 2022 - Azure DevOps Server 2019
Pattern syntax
A pattern is a string or list of newline-delimited strings. File and directory names are compared to patterns to include (or sometimes exclude) them in a task. You can build up complex behavior by stacking multiple patterns. See fnmatch for a full syntax guide.
Match characters
Most characters are used as exact matches. What counts as an "exact" match is platform-dependent: the Windows filesystem is case-insensitive, so the pattern "ABC" would match a file called "abc". On case-sensitive filesystems, that pattern and name would not match.
The following characters have special behavior.
*
matches zero or more characters within a file or directory name. See examples.?
matches any single character within a file or directory name. See examples.[]
matches a set or range of characters within a file or directory name. See examples.**
recursive wildcard. For example,/hello/**/*
matches all descendants of/hello
.
Extended globbing
?(hello|world)
- matcheshello
orworld
zero or one times*(hello|world)
- zero or more occurrences+(hello|world)
- one or more occurrences@(hello|world)
- exactly once!(hello|world)
- nothello
orworld
Note, extended globs cannot span directory separators. For example, +(hello/world|other)
is not valid.
Comments
Patterns that begin with #
are treated as comments.
Exclude patterns
Leading !
changes the meaning of an include pattern to exclude.
You can include a pattern, exclude a subset of it, and then re-include a subset of that:
this is known as an "interleaved" pattern.
Multiple !
flips the meaning. See examples.
You must define an include pattern before an exclude one. See examples.
Escaping
Wrapping special characters in []
can be used to escape literal glob characters in a file name. For example the literal file name hello[a-z]
can be escaped as hello[[]a-z]
.
Slash
/
is used as the path separator on Linux and macOS.
Most of the time, Windows agents accept /
.
Occasions where the Windows separator (\
) must be used are documented.
Examples
Basic pattern examples
Asterisk examples
Example 1: Given the pattern *Website.sln
and files:
ConsoleHost.sln
ContosoWebsite.sln
FabrikamWebsite.sln
Website.sln
The pattern would match:
ContosoWebsite.sln
FabrikamWebsite.sln
Website.sln
Example 2: Given the pattern *Website/*.proj
and paths:
ContosoWebsite/index.html
ContosoWebsite/ContosoWebsite.proj
FabrikamWebsite/index.html
FabrikamWebsite/FabrikamWebsite.proj
The pattern would match:
ContosoWebsite/ContosoWebsite.proj
FabrikamWebsite/FabrikamWebsite.proj
Question mark examples
Example 1: Given the pattern log?.log
and files:
log1.log
log2.log
log3.log
script.sh
The pattern would match:
log1.log
log2.log
log3.log
Example 2: Given the pattern image.???
and files:
image.tiff
image.png
image.ico
The pattern would match:
image.png
image.ico
Character set examples
Example 1: Given the pattern Sample[AC].dat
and files:
SampleA.dat
SampleB.dat
SampleC.dat
SampleD.dat
The pattern would match:
SampleA.dat
SampleC.dat
Example 2: Given the pattern Sample[A-C].dat
and files:
SampleA.dat
SampleB.dat
SampleC.dat
SampleD.dat
The pattern would match:
SampleA.dat
SampleB.dat
SampleC.dat
Example 3: Given the pattern Sample[A-CEG].dat
and files:
SampleA.dat
SampleB.dat
SampleC.dat
SampleD.dat
SampleE.dat
SampleF.dat
SampleG.dat
SampleH.dat
The pattern would match:
SampleA.dat
SampleB.dat
SampleC.dat
SampleE.dat
SampleG.dat
Recursive wildcard examples
Given the pattern **/*.ext
and files:
sample1/A.ext
sample1/B.ext
sample2/C.ext
sample2/D.not
The pattern would match:
sample1/A.ext
sample1/B.ext
sample2/C.ext
Exclude pattern examples
Given the pattern:
*
!*.xml
and files:
ConsoleHost.exe
ConsoleHost.pdb
ConsoleHost.xml
Fabrikam.dll
Fabrikam.pdb
Fabrikam.xml
The pattern would match:
ConsoleHost.exe
ConsoleHost.pdb
Fabrikam.dll
Fabrikam.pdb
Double exclude
Given the pattern:
*
!*.xml
!!Fabrikam.xml
and files:
ConsoleHost.exe
ConsoleHost.pdb
ConsoleHost.xml
Fabrikam.dll
Fabrikam.pdb
Fabrikam.xml
The pattern would match:
ConsoleHost.exe
ConsoleHost.pdb
Fabrikam.dll
Fabrikam.pdb
Fabrikam.xml
Folder exclude
Given the pattern:
**
!sample/**
and files:
ConsoleHost.exe
ConsoleHost.pdb
ConsoleHost.xml
sample/Fabrikam.dll
sample/Fabrikam.pdb
sample/Fabrikam.xml
The pattern would match:
ConsoleHost.exe
ConsoleHost.pdb
ConsoleHost.xml