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:

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

where:

1. Ant pattern refers to Ant based path patterns
2. File pattern can be constructed by prefixing"+" or "-" character before an Ant pattern:
   • if prefixed with "+", the file pattern will include files or directories specified in the Ant pattern (default)
   • if prefixed with "-", the file pattern will exclude files or directories specified in the Ant pattern
   • if not prefixed, the file pattern will include files or directories specified in the Ant pattern (it has the same effect as prefixing a "+" character)
3. File patterns are a series of file pattern connected with the comma character

Examples

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

1. The configuration workspace is located in /opt/quickbuild2/configurations/1/workspace, and it contains the following 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 is located in /opt/quickbuild2/builds/1/artifacts
3. The property From Directory of the artifact publishing step is left empty, which means that the workspace directory will be used as the base directory of the file pattern matching.
4. The property Destination Directory of the artifact publishing step is left empty, which means matched files and directories will be copied over to the artifacts directory.

Let's examine several file patterns to see what the artifacts directory will look like after the publishing step:

1. **
   All files and directories will be published from the workspace directory to the 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 are directly in the workspace directory will be published. The artifacts directory will look like:

   file0.zip
   

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

   file0.zip
   dir1/
     file1.zip
   

5. **/*.zip,-dir2/*
   Publishes all zip files recursively, but excludes all the files that are directly in the dir2 directory. The artifacts
   directory will look like:

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