go-dotignore is a high-performance Go library for parsing .gitignore-style files and matching file paths against specified ignore patterns. It provides full support for advanced ignore rules, negation patterns, an
BBFE
d wildcards, making it an ideal choice for file exclusion in Go projects.
- 🚀 High Performance - Optimized pattern matching with efficient regex compilation
- 📁 Complete .gitignore Support - Full compatibility with Git's ignore specification
- 🔄 Negation Patterns - Use
!to override ignore rules - 🌟 Advanced Wildcards - Support for
*,?, and**patterns - 📂 Directory Matching - Proper handling of directory-only patterns with
/ - 🔒 Cross-Platform - Consistent behavior across Windows, macOS, and Linux
- ⚡ Memory Efficient - Minimal memory footprint with lazy evaluation
- 🛡️ Error Handling - Comprehensive error reporting and validation
- 📝 Well Documented - Extensive examples and godoc documentation
go get github.com/codeglyph/go-dotignorepackage main
import (
"fmt"
"log"
"github.com/codeglyph/go-dotignore"
)
func main() {
// Create matcher from patterns
patterns := []string{
"*.log", // Ignore all .log files
"!important.log", // But keep important.log
"temp/", // Ignore temp directory
"**/*.tmp", // Ignore .tmp files anywhere
}
matcher, err := dotignore.NewPatternMatcher(patterns)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
// Check if files should be ignored
files := []string{
"app.log", // true - matches *.log
"important.log", // false - negated by !important.log
"temp/cache.txt", // true - in temp/ directory
"src/backup.tmp", // true - matches **/*.tmp
}
for _, file := range files {
ignored, err := matcher.Matches(file)
if err != nil {
log.Printf("Error checking %s: %v", file, err)
continue
}
fmt.Printf("%-20s ignored: %v\n", file, ignored)
}
}// Parse .gitignore file
matcher, err := dotignore.NewPatternMatcherFromFile(".gitignore")
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
ignored, err := matcher.Matches("build/output.js")
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Printf("Should ignore: %v\n", ignored)import (
"strings"
"github.com/codeglyph/go-dotignore"
)
patterns := `
# Dependencies
node_modules/
vendor/
# Build outputs
*.exe
*.so
*.dylib
dist/
# Logs
*.log
!debug.log
# OS generated files
.DS_Store
Thumbs.db
`
reader := strings.NewReader(patterns)
matcher, err := dotignore.NewPatternMatcherFromReader(reader)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}patterns := []string{
// Basic wildcards
"*.txt", // All .txt files
"file?.log", // file1.log, fileA.log, etc.
// Directory patterns
"cache/", // Only directories named cache
"logs/**", // Everything in logs directory
// Recursive patterns
"**/*.test.js", // All .test.js files anywhere
"**/node_modules/", // node_modules at any level
// Negation patterns
"build/", // Ignore build directory
"!build/README.md", // But keep README.md in build
// Complex patterns
"src/**/temp/", // temp directories anywhere under src
"*.{log,tmp,cache}", // Multiple extensions (if supported)
}| Pattern | Description | Example Matches |
|---|---|---|
* |
Any characters except / |
*.txt → file.txt, data.txt |
? |
Single character except / |
file?.txt → file1.txt, fileA.txt |
** |
Zero or more directories | **/test → test, src/test, a/b/test |
| Pattern | Description | Example Matches |
|---|---|---|
dir/ |
Directory only | build/ → build/ (directory) |
dir/** |
Directory contents | src/** → everything in src/ |
**/dir/ |
Directory at any level | **/temp/ → temp/, cache/temp/ |
patterns := []string{
"*.log", // Ignore all .log files
"!important.log", // Exception: keep important.log
"temp/", // Ignore temp directory
"!temp/keep.txt", // Exception: keep temp/keep.txt
}Note: Pattern order matters! Later patterns override earlier ones.