Skipping files based on their names

The <SyncFileMask> element allows you to configure mm-sync to ignore files during synchronization based on a character string in the filename (including the file extension).

The default configuration is to not skip any files based on their name. There can be only one <SyncFileMask> element in the configuration file, but you can use regular expressions (regexes) to define complex text patterns, which gives you a lot of flexibility in specifying the files to skip in synchronizations.

Note: Complex regex patterns slow down the files pass of synchronization.

To create the mask defining the character string that identifies the files to ignore during synchronization, use the following syntax:

Character	Meaning
\	Treat the next character as a literal
^	Begins with
$	Ends with

The <SyncFileMask> element supports POSIX regular expressions, so you can use AND (&) and OR (|) operators to create your mask.

Here are some simple masks to ignore files with names that:

begin with ".": <SyncFileMask>^\.</SyncFileMask>
The ".", which usually means any character, here means the "." (dot) character, because it's preceeded by a "\".
contain "w": <SyncFileMask>w</SyncFileMask>
end with "roy": <SyncFileMask>roy$</SyncFileMask>
begin with a "." (dot) character or end with ".mp3".: <SyncFileMask>(^\.)|(\.mp3$)</SyncFileMask>
match "Recycle Bin": <SyncFileMask>^Recycle Bin$</SyncFileMask>

Note: If you create a file mask with multiple operators, be sure that you don't configure mm-sync to ignore certain files that you want synchronized.