Syncthing .stignore Examples: Ignore Files by Extension, Folder & Pattern Type

Syncthing uses .stignore files (similar to .gitignore) to exclude files and folders from synchronisation. Place the .stignore file in the root of your synced folder.

1. Basic Syntax

• * - Matches any sequence of characters (except /)
• ** - Matches any sequence of characters (including /)
• ? - Matches any single character
• ! - Inversion of the given condition (i.e. do not exclude)
• (?i) - Prefix indicating that the pattern should be matched without case sensitivity
• (?d) - Prefix indicating that the file can be deleted if preventing directory removal

2. Common Patterns

2.1. Files by Extension

*.log           # All log files
*.tmp           # Temporary files
*.cache         # Cache files
*.bak           # Backup files
*.swp           # Vim swap files
*~              # Backup files ending with ~
temp*           # Ignore files/folders starting with "temp"
*cache*         # Ignore anything containing "cache"
file?.txt       # Ignore file1.txt, fileA.txt, etc.

2.2. System Files

.DS_Store       # macOS Finder metadata
Thumbs.db       # Windows thumbnails
desktop.ini     # Windows folder settings
.Trash-*        # Linux trash
$RECYCLE.BIN    # Windows recycle bin

2.3. Development Files

node_modules/   # Node.js dependencies
.git/           # Git repository data
.vscode/        # VS Code settings
.idea/          # IntelliJ IDEA settings
__pycache__/    # Python cache
*.pyc           # Python compiled files
build/          # Build directories
dist/           # Distribution directories

2.4. Folders

temp/           # Entire temp folder
*/logs/         # logs folder in any subdirectory
**/cache/       # cache folder at any depth

3. Advanced Patterns

3.1. Negation (Include Exceptions)

temp/               # Ignore temp folder
!temp/important.txt  # But keep this specific file

3.2. Case Sensitivity

(?i)*.PDF       # Case-insensitive PDF files
(?i)readme*     # Case-insensitive readme files

3.3. Regular Expressions

(?i)\.jpe?g$    # JPEG files (case-insensitive)
^\d{4}-\d{2}    # Files starting with date pattern (YYYY-MM)

3.4. Path-Specific Patterns

/root-file.txt      # Only in root directory
**/deep/file.txt    # file.txt in any "deep" folder
docs/*.pdf          # PDF files directly in docs folder
docs/**/*.pdf       # PDF files anywhere under docs

4. Common Gotchas

1. Leading slash matters: /file.txt only matches in root, file.txt matches anywhere
2. Trailing slash for folders: Always use folder/ for directories
3. Case sensitivity: Default is case-sensitive (use (?i) for case-insensitive)
4. Escaping: Use \ to escape special characters: \*.txt matches literal "*.txt"
5. Comments: Lines starting with # are comments
6. Empty lines: Ignored, use for organization

4.1. Quick Reference Card

5. Practical Examples

5.1. Programming

# Dependencies
node_modules/
vendor/
.venv/
venv/

# Build artifacts
build/
dist/
*.exe
*.dll
*.so

# IDE files
.vscode/
.idea/
*.sublime-*

# OS files
.DS_Store
Thumbs.db

5.2. Docker Container Volumes Sync

// macOS system files
.DS_Store
._*
._.DS_Store
._Network

// Syncthing ignore file itself
.stignore

// Log files - anywhere in directory structure
**/log
**/Log
**/logs
**/Logs
**/*.log

// Log directories - anywhere in directory structure
**/log/
**/Log/
**/logs/
**/Logs/

// Syncting config
!syncthing/config.xml
syncthing/*

References

• Official Documentation