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Masks

To use the following features of WinSCP you need to specify a mask (wildcard) to select files (or other things):

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You can use File Mask dialog to help you with assembling the mask.

Basic Syntax

When specifying 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 (except for special characters used in the constructs described below).

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To escape character with special meaning in patterns (*?[) surround it by set pattern, e.g. filewithstar[*].

Size and Time Constraints

File mask can be followed by these size and time constraints:

Pattern Meaning Example
>size[KMG] Matches files larger than size. Following units can be used: K (Kilobyte), M (Megabyte) or G (Gigabyte). *.bin>1M
<size[KMG] Matches files smaller than size. <1G
>yyyy-mm-dd[ hh:mm[:ss]] Matches files modified the last time after the date or time (i.e. “newer than”). >2012-01-01, >2012-02-29 08:47
>time[YDHNS] Matches files modified the last time within specified interval (i.e. “newer than”). One of the following units must be used: Y (years), D (days), H (hours), N (minutes) or S (seconds). *.doc>1Y
<yyyy-mm-dd[ hh:mm[:ss]] Matches files modified the last time before the date or time (i.e. “older than”). *.doc<2012-02-29 08:54:21
<time[YDHNS] Matches files modified the last time before specified interval (i.e. “older than”). <60D

It is also possible to use operators >= and <=.

To escape operator character (<>) double it, e.g. filewith<<lessthan.

Combining Masks

In most contexts, you can combine several masks using semicolon (;) or comma (,). You cannot use this in source parameters of script commands and .NET assembly methods.1

For example following mask includes all JPG and GIF images: *.jpg; *.gif.

To escape separator character double it, e.g. filewith,,comma.

Include and Exclude Masks

Mask can combine include and exclude mask separated by pipe (|).

For example following mask includes all JPG and GIF images, but excludes those starting with 2010 and 2011: *.jpg; *.gif | 2010*; 2011*.

Both include and exclude part can be empty, denoting that everything is included or nothing is excluded, respectively. When include part is empty, masks starts with pipe straight away. When exclude part is empty, you can omit the trailing pipe.

To escape pipe character double it, e.g. filewith||pipe.

Directory Mask

To use the mask for directories, append a slash to the end, e.g. images/. The mask */ matches any directory.

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Note that when using File Mask dialog, the trailing slash for directory masks is appended automatically.

To make operation non-recursive use exclude mask */2.

Directory masks are recursive. E.g. mask images/ matches directories /home/martin/images/ as well as /home/martin/images/avatars/.

Path Mask

When a 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 example mask /home/martinp/*.txt matches all text files within the directory. To match all text files within subtree, use mask /home/martinp/*.txt; /home/martinp/*/*.txt3.

The path mask is matched against full path, i.e. not against path relative path to a root of file transfer or synchronization. E.g. mask public_html/wiki/ does not match /home/martinp/public_html/wiki directory, even if the root of file transfer or synchronization is /home/martinp. Partial path mask that matches an absolute path may look like */public_html/wiki/.

For a partial 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, a mask */public_html/*.bak will match backup files both in D:\Documents\public_html\ and /home/martinp/public_html/.

You can also specify full path to a specific file or directory, both local and remote. For example if you want to match only a specific .csv directory, not all, use /home/martinp/data/.csv/ instead of .csv/.

Exceptions

For convenience, masks *.* and *. are exceptions matching any file and any file without an extension, respectively, even if its name does not include any dot.

  1. Note that this restriction does not apply to -filemask switch in scripting and TransferOptions.FileMask in .NET assembly.Back
  2. Full inline file mask syntax, in case there’s no other mask involved, is |*/, where the | denotes a start of an exclude maskBack
  3. Simpler, but less precise, form would be /home/martinp*/*.txtBack

Last modified: by martin