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, and 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.