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Folder comparison filters

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Azure DevOps Services | Azure DevOps Server 2022 - Azure DevOps Server 2019

Visual Studio 2019 | Visual Studio 2022

The folder comparison filter is an ordered list of filters that match the names of files or folders when you compare folders in Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC).

To evaluate file or folder names against the name filters, you enter the filters in the Filter field of the Compare dialog box in Visual Studio. You can also specify filters by using the tf folderdiff command.

The default name filters are as follows:

!*.pdb;!*.obj;!*.dll;!*.exe;!*.res;!*.resources;!*.cache;!*.ilk;!*.ncb;!obj\;!objd\;!bin\

Name filters

The following wildcard characters have special meaning when they're used in a name filter:

  • ? matches exactly one character.
  • * matches zero or more characters.
  • ! specifies an exclusion name filter.
  • \ specifies a folder name filter.
  • ; is the name filter delimiter.

Important

The following characters aren't allowed in name filters: ", <, >, |, \b, \0, \t, and numerals 0-31.

The name filters are applied to the file and folder names by using the following rules:

  • When Compare evaluates a file or folder name, it compares the name to each filter in the order that you specified the filters. As soon as the file or folder name matches a filter, the name is a match, and it isn't compared against the remaining filters.

  • A folder filter must end with the \ wildcard character.

  • An exclusion filter must begin with the ! wildcard character.

  • For any filters that aren't the exclusion filter, the results include only files or folders that match the specified filters.

  • For an exclusion filter, the results include all files or folders that don't match the exclusion filter.

  • If you want to exclude a subset of file or folder names, you must first specify the filter for the file or folder name that you want to match. Then specify the exclusion filter.

Examples

The following table lists filter name mask examples.

Name mask Description
*.cs Matches all C# files.
My*.bmp Matches all bitmap files that begin with My.
!*.exe Excludes all executable files.
!objd\ Excludes all objd folders.

The following table lists filter examples.

Filter Description
*.cs;!objd\;!obj\;!bin\ Matches all C# files except the ones in objd, obj, or bin folders.
!*.resx;!*.ini;!resources\;!*junk*\ Excludes all .resx and .ini files, all files in the resources folder, and all files in any folder that has a name that includes the word junk.

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