File Pattern Reference

Definition

File patterns are widely used in QuickBuild to specify a set of directories or files. For example, the artifact publishing step has a property File Patterns which is used to specify files and directories to be published as artifacts.

File patterns are described using EBNF as below:

file patterns::=file pattern,{",",file pattern}
file pattern::=[+|-]Ant pattern

Here:

1. Ant pattern refers to Ant based path patterns
2. File pattern can be constructed by prefixing "+" or "-" before a Ant pattern:
   • if prefixed with "+", the file pattern will be used to include files or directories
   • if prefixed with "-", the file pattern will be used to exclude files or directories
   • if not prefixed, the file pattern is considered to be a include pattern (that is, have the same effect as prefixing a "+" character)
3. file patterns are a series of file pattern connecting together through the comma character

Examples

Here we will use the artifact publishing step to give examples of file patterns in QuickBuild. Let's suppose that:

1. the configuration workspace locates at /opt/quickbuild2/configurations/1/workspace, and it contains below directories and files:

   file0.zip
   file0.doc
   dir1/
     file1.zip
     file1.doc
   dir2/
     file2.zip
     file2.doc
     dir3/
       file3.zip
       file3.doc
   

2. the build artifacts directory locates at /opt/quickbuild2/builds/1/artifacts
3. The property From Directory of artifact publishing step is left empty, which means that the workspace directory will be used as the base of file pattern matching.
4. The property Destination Directory of artifact publishing step is left empty, which means matched files and directories will be copied over to the artifacts directory.

Now we will examine several file patterns to see what the artifacts directory will like after the publishing:

1. **/*
   All files and directories will be published from workspace directory to artifacts directory recursively. The artifacts directory will look just the same as the workspace directory:

   file0.zip
   file0.doc
   dir1/
     file1.zip
     file1.doc
   dir2/
     file2.zip
     file2.doc
     dir3/
       file3.zip
       file3.doc
   

2. **/*.zip
   All zip files will be published recursively. The artifacts direcory will look like:

   file0.zip
   dir1/
     file1.zip
   dir2/
     file2.zip
     dir3/
       file3.zip
   

3. *.zip
   All zip files that is directly under the workspace will be published. The artifacts directory will look like:

   file0.zip
   

4. **/*.zip,-dir2/**/*
   Publish all zip files recursively, but exclude all files under the dir2 directory recursively. The artifacts
   directory will look like:

   file0.zip
   dir1/
     file1.zip
   

5. **/*.zip,-dir2/*
   Publish all zip files recursively, but exclude all files that is directly under the dir2 directory. The artifacts
   directory will look like:

   file0.zip
   dir1/
     file1.zip
   dir2/
     dir3/
       file3.zip