Content indexing: Excluding folders of a certain name

Discussion related to "Everything" 1.5 Alpha.
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nappyjim
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Oct 14, 2024 6:18 pm

Content indexing: Excluding folders of a certain name

Post by nappyjim »

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First of all, great works on all this devs. Amazing tool!
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Is there a way to exclude content indexing of ANY files when they are within a folder of certain name?

For example, I am indexing a folder on my hard drive "C:\Jims stuff". Within Jims Stuff I have many sub folders. Within some of those sub folders, I have folders called "! Machine CD" that includes many large PDF's that I dont want indexed. Unfortunately, the PDF's have varying names so I can not just exclude "this certain filename.pdf"

Is there a way I can add that exclusion to my current settings below?

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void
Developer
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Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:31 pm

Re: Content indexing: Excluding folders of a certain name

Post by void »

Thank you for your feedback nappyjim,
Is there a way to exclude content indexing of ANY files when they are within a folder of certain name?
Yes, please change exclude files to:

! Machine CD\**


The ** will match all files under a ! Machine CD folder (including subfolders)
nappyjim
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Oct 14, 2024 6:18 pm

Re: Content indexing: Excluding folders of a certain name

Post by nappyjim »

I tried that but when it starts indexing and I hover over the file its currently working on, it is within a ! Machine CD folder.


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therube
Posts: 4955
Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:48 pm

Re: Content indexing: Excluding folders of a certain name

Post by therube »

Maybe,
\! Machine CD\**
?
(That's not going to be it.)

The issue is the ! in the directory name.
(Well that's not really the issue, but it causes issues on Everything's end.)


And while we're here, I'll note that an Exclude Filter of
! Machine CD\**
will exclude a directory named,
\Machine CD\
.


Maybe
regex:\! Machine CD
?
But after that, I'm not sure how to add the closing \** into the mix, if that matters?
Or some other way to treat the ! as a literal?
nappyjim
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Oct 14, 2024 6:18 pm

Re: Content indexing: Excluding folders of a certain name

Post by nappyjim »

What does Everything treat a ! as?

I have noticed I have to search for 'machine cd' and not '! machine cd'
therube
Posts: 4955
Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:48 pm

Re: Content indexing: Excluding folders of a certain name

Post by therube »

! is typically a NOT operator.

So if you wanted to search for ducks, you could search,
ducks
.
And if you wanted to see anything except for ducks, or NOT a duck,
!ducks
.

Windows assigns no special meaning to !.
Though it seems that Everything, in the Exclude (Include) sections does assign some meaning to !, so to search, include or exclude successfully, you need to say ! should simply be ! & not something "special".

With regex: you can remove "special" meanings by escaping the "special" character with a back-slash (\), so \!, says threat ! as ! & nothing more.

Likewise, in your search, if you enclose ! Machine CD in quotes, "! Machine CD" that is sufficient.
(But I'm not sure how to do the same in the Exclude dialog?)
void
Developer
Posts: 16680
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:31 pm

Re: Content indexing: Excluding folders of a certain name

Post by void »

! Machine CD\**
is the correct exclude file filter.

Search Operators are not applied to exclude filters.



Are you indexing any properties under Tools -> Options -> Properties?
-If yes, these are also shown in the "Indexing" status on the content option page.
nappyjim
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Oct 14, 2024 6:18 pm

Re: Content indexing: Excluding folders of a certain name

Post by nappyjim »

My properties are empty. Do I need to have something here?
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void
Developer
Posts: 16680
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:31 pm

Re: Content indexing: Excluding folders of a certain name

Post by void »

Ah, the filter is in the wrong spot..

Please clear your Exclude folders filter.
Please change your Exclude files filter to:
! Machine CD\**




-or-

Change your Exclude folders to:
! Machine CD
nappyjim
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Oct 14, 2024 6:18 pm

Re: Content indexing: Excluding folders of a certain name

Post by nappyjim »

Void, I found out the same thing at the same time running a smaller scale test. Just doing ! Machine CD in exclude folders, worked! Excellent!
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