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Masks
To use the following features of WinSCP you need to specify a mask to select files (or other things):
- Text file mask for text mode transfers.
- Ignore mask for transfers.
- Selecting/unselecting files by file mask.
- Defining autoselection rule for transfer settings preset.
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You can specify several masks separated by semicolon (;) or comma (,).
When specifing the mask you can use following patterns:
| Pattern | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
* |
Matches any number (including zero) of arbitrary characters. | *.doc; about*.html |
? |
Matches exactly one arbitrary character. | photo????.jpg |
[abc] |
Matches one character from the set. | index_[abc].html |
[a-z] |
Matches one character from the range. | index_[a-z].html |
All other characters are treated literally.
When the mask selects files and it makes sense to select them based on directory, you can extend the mask with a path mask. You should separate the path mask from the filename mask by a slash. For a relative path mask it makes no difference whether you use back (\) or forward slashes (/); the mask will always work for both local and remote paths. For example, the exclude mask */public_html/*.bak will exclude backup files both in D:\Documents\public_html and /home/martinp/public_html.
Particularly when specifing an include mask for transfers, bear in mind that it is applied to directories as well. If you want to match directories only, add slash at the end of the mask. Mask */ matches any directory. For example to transfer only HTML files located in any directory, use include mask */; *.html.