Do the globs supported by --type-add support full-path matching, or only file-path matching? If the latter, why are /s accepted?

[BatmanAoD]

I was trying to determine if I could use --type-add to declare a type that matches GitHub Actions workflows (among other types of CI config), but it appears that although ripgrep accepts a slash inside the type-add argument, it never matches anything:

❯ RIPGREP_CONFIG_PATH= rg --hidden --debug --type-add ci:**/.github/workflows/*.yml --type ci 'no excuse' 2>&1 | rg '\.github'
rg: DEBUG|ignore::walk|crates/ignore/src/walk.rs:2014: whitelisting ./.github: Whitelist(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/kstrand/.gitignore"), original: "!/.github/", actual: ".github", is_whitelist: true, is_only_dir: true })))
rg: DEBUG|ignore::walk|crates/ignore/src/walk.rs:2011: ignoring ./.github/dependabot.yml: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Types(Glob(UnmatchedIgnore))))
rg: DEBUG|ignore::walk|crates/ignore/src/walk.rs:2011: ignoring ./.github/workflows/<file>.yml: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Types(Glob(UnmatchedIgnore))))

...followed by the rest of my github actions files.

Is there a way to make this work? Also, will --type-add foo:bar/baz ever match anything, and if not, could this be made a hard "invalid definition" error (the way --type-add bar/baz:foo already is)?

[CharlieJamesGwapo]

File types only ever match against the file name, not the path. In crates/ignore/src/types.rs, Types::matched does:

// We only want to match against the file name, so extract it.
let name = match file_name(path.as_ref()) { ... };
self.set.matches_into(name, &mut *matches);

So for ./.github/workflows/ci.yml, the type globs only ever see ci.yml. A glob that needs a literal / in the middle, like **/.github/workflows/*.yml, can never match.

Why / is accepted: TypesBuilder::add only validates the type name (letters and numbers only, which is why --type-add bar/baz:foo errors). The glob is compiled as given. Also, not every glob with a / is dead: a leading **/ can match zero directories, so --type-add 'y:**/*.yml' behaves exactly like y:*.yml. A blanket "no / allowed" error would reject that. A warning when a glob has a / that isn't part of a leading **/ seems possible, but that's for the maintainers to decide.

What does work: -g/--glob. Those globs match against the path (gitignore-style), so this finds exactly the workflow files:

rg --hidden -g '**/.github/workflows/*.{yml,yaml}' 'no excuse'

With the leading **/, it also works when you run it from a subdirectory or have nested repos. -g '.github/workflows/*.{yml,yaml}' (no **/) is anchored to the directory you search from. You can combine -g with -t too, since both filters apply.

If you want it as a reusable "type", a shell alias or function is the simplest option, because a --glob in RIPGREP_CONFIG_PATH would apply to every search:

alias rgci="rg --hidden -g '**/.github/workflows/*.{yml,yaml}' -g '**/.gitlab-ci.yml' -g '**/.circleci/config.yml'"

I checked this with ripgrep 15.2.0: --type-add 'ci:**/.github/workflows/*.yml' -t ci searches nothing, and the -g version above returns the workflow files, including ones in nested directories.

[kk376]

--type-add only matches basenames, not directory paths. In crates/ignore/src/types.rs, Types::matched extracts file_name() before evaluating globs, so any slash in the middle will never match.

Slashes are accepted syntactically because a leading **/ works (it matches zero directories, collapsing to a basename match like ci:*.yml), but ripgrep doesn't evaluate directory paths inside --type-add.

For path matching, use -g/--glob instead:

rg --hidden -g '**/.github/workflows/*.{yml,yaml}' 'no excuse'

If you want a reusable preset for CI workflows, a shell alias or a --flagfile is the standard way to bundle those globs.