.ppignore issue with folders

[rkmfl]

I've created a .ppignore file in the root of my originals folder, I'm running the latest version of PP 240531-60b3a4628.

Excluding files works fine; however, I cannot get folders to work.

I have searched here and googled, and I'm aware that previously indexed files will not be excluded. That's not my issue.

Here's an example of my .ppignore file:

@eadir
/SpotlightWallpaper99/
/Photo2/!Photography99/
/Photo2/Wallpaper99/

*-topaz.*

*.webm
*.mkv
*.flv
*.vob
*.avi
*.mov
*.wmv
*.yuv
*.mp4
*.m4v
*.mpg
*.mpeg
*.mpv
*.m2v
*.3gp

I've also listed the folders without the leading forward-slash:

SpotlightWallpaper99/
Photo2/!Photography99/
Photo2/Wallpaper99/

In each event I add an index number at the end of the folder name (and alter the ignore, then restart PP).

And in each of these events, it indexes that new folder that is listed in the ignore file.

Does anyone have suggestions for diagnosing this?

Thank you in advance.

[lastzero]

Did you try the folder names without slashes at the beginning and/or end?

[rkmfl]

Thank you.

There are two examples. One has slashes in the beginning.

The second example in code-brackets, shows them without the leading slash.

You're right, I'm missing the third example without the trailing slash; however, to your question, yes, I've tried that as well.

[lastzero]

It's the first time someone is reporting this. @graciousgrey should be able to test it with your examples next week.

PS: Note that specifying sub-directories like Photo2/!Photography99 may not be supported, but SpotlightWallpaper99 should certainly work.

[rkmfl]

Yes, agreed. This is why I assumed I must be doing something wrong and posted in the Q&A (not the bug reports).

It may be some combination of parameters in my instance causes a problem.

Or as you say, it may be that sub-directories are not supported (or they require an escape for the slash, etc).

If we learn that the sub-directories are not supported, this will be great info. Either to add the limitation to the documentation, or to fix. Either/or.

Thank you.

[rkmfl]

I was doing more testing and you're right about the stripped directory names.

I tested without the preceding slash (indicating root) and without the trailing (indicating folder), each one removed.

However, what I did not try was removing both slashes. In short, your original suspicion is correct: folders cannot contain leading OR trailing slashes; however, they can contain the slashes that divide folders.

Therefore, this is all valid:

foldername
folder1/folder2

Yet these are invalid (regardless of whether they evaluate to the correct path)

/foldername
foldername/
/folder1/folder2/

Thank you for your help.

[lastzero]

Thanks for testing it again! Exactly what I thought. If it helps, we could automatically trim slashes at the beginning and at the end?

[lastzero]

Our next release will automatically trim leading and trailing slashes from .ppignore patterns, see 4c07ec4.

You can test this with our updated preview build:

• https://docs.photoprism.app/release-notes/#development-preview

[rkmfl]

@lastzero - Thank you, that's great!

Quick question. To clarify, I'm not asking for a feature; my needs are addressed. I'm asking only for sake of the community/benefitting the project...

If you do not use slashes to indicate directories (in a glob-formatted config file), how do you know whether to exclude a folder or a file, based on the user's input?

For example, if there is a file named:
/MyFile

And a folder named:
/Folder1/MyFile/etc

The current approach would exclude both; it appears there may not be a method to distinguish.

This is the reason I incorrectly assumed there had to be a leading or trailing space.

Again, if the preference is not to allow the distinction, that's fine, I'm not asking for anything new. I only mention in the event it's of help.

Thanks again for your patient, helpful assist!

[lastzero]

Files without extension are skipped by default, so the only possible confusion could be directories that match a filename pattern. From what I know, that's a potential issue with other ignore file implementations as well!?