---
name: "syncthing-stignore"
section: "5"
platform: "linux"
package: "syncthing"
version: "2.1.7-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/syncthing-stignore"
---

# syncthing-stignore(5)

Prevent files from being synchronized to other nodes

## NAME

syncthing-stignore - Prevent files from being synchronized to other nodes

## SYNOPSIS

```
.stignore
```

## DESCRIPTION

If some files should not be synchronized to (or from) other devices, a file called **.stignore** can be created containing file patterns to ignore.  The **.stignore** file must be placed in the root of the synced folder (files in other locations are not applied).  The **.stignore** file itself will never be synced to other devices, although it can **#include** files that *are* synchronized between devices.  All patterns are relative to the synced folder root.  The contents of the **.stignore** file must be UTF-8 encoded.

**NOTE:**

Note that ignored files can block removal of an otherwise empty directory. See below for the (?d) prefix to allow deletion of ignored files.

## PATTERNS

The **.stignore** file contains a list of file or path patterns. The *first* pattern that matches will decide the fate of a given file.

- •

  Regular file names match themselves, i.e. the pattern **foo** matches the files **foo**, **subdir/foo** as well as any directory named **foo**. Spaces are treated as regular characters, except for leading and trailing spaces, which are automatically trimmed.

- •

  **Asterisk** (**\***) matches zero or more characters in a filename, but does not match the directory separator. **te\*ne** matches **telephone**, **subdir/telephone** but not **tele/phone**.

- •

  **Double asterisk** (**\*\***) matches as above, but also directory separators. **te\*\*ne** matches **telephone**, **subdir/telephone** and **tele/sub/dir/phone**.

- •

  **Question mark** (**?**) matches a single character that is not the directory separator. **te??st** matches **tebest** but not **teb/st** or **test**.

- •

  **Square brackets** (**\[\]**) denote a character range: **\[a-z\]** matches any lower case character.

- •

  **Curly brackets** (**{}**) denote a set of comma separated alternatives: **{banana,pineapple}** matches either **banana** or **pineapple**.

- •

  **Backslash** (**\\**) “escapes” a special character so that it loses its special meaning. For example, **\\{banana\\}** matches **{banana}** exactly and does not denote a set of alternatives as above.

  **NOTE:**

  On Windows, **\\** is the path separator, so use **\|** to escape special characters. For example, **\|{banana\|}** matches **{banana}**.

  To use **\\** to escape special characters (and use **/** as the path separator), insert a **#escape=\\** at the top of the file. Here’s a short example:

  ```
  #escape=\
  /foo
  /path/bar/\{banana\}
  /path/baz\[2\]/ex\[3\].txt
  ```

  **#escape=\\** must be placed at the top of the file, before any patterns, but leading comments, and blank lines are OK.

  Any files included using **#include** (see below) will each need their own **#escape=\\**.

  Using **#escape=\\** allows the same file to be synced and used on any operating system.

- •

  A pattern beginning with **/** matches in the root of the synced folder only. **/foo** matches **foo** but not **subdir/foo**.

- •

  A pattern beginning with **#include** results in loading patterns from the named file. It is an error for a file to not exist or be included more than once. Note that while this can be used to include patterns from a file in a subdirectory, the patterns themselves are still relative to the synced folder *root*. Example: **#include more-patterns.txt**.

  Any **#include** directives inside a file loaded by **#include** require paths specified relative to the directory containing the loaded file, rather than the synchronised root directory.

- •

  A pattern beginning with a **!** prefix negates the pattern: matching files are *included* (that is, *not* ignored). This can be used to override more general patterns that follow.

  **NOTE:**

  Negated patterns that can match items below the folder root will cause Syncthing to traverse otherwise ignored directories. If the *watcher* is enabled, those directories will also be watched. Directories ignored before the first negated pattern can however be safely skipped, since the first matching pattern wins. For example:

  ```
  /foo
  /bar
  !baz
  *
  ```

  The directories **foo** and **bar** will be entirely ignored. However any other directories present must be scanned entirely to find any items named *baz*, despite the fact that they will be ignored due to the **\***. As a special case, top-level rooted patterns (e.g. **!/foo**) do not cause this behaviour:

  ```
  !/baz
  *
  ```

  In this case, only the directory **baz** will be scanned, since everything else is ignored by the **\*** pattern.

- •

  A pattern beginning with a **(?i)** prefix enables case-insensitive pattern matching. **(?i)test** matches **test**, **TEST** and **tEsT**. The **(?i)** prefix can be combined with other patterns, for example the pattern **(?i)!picture\*.png** indicates that **Picture1.PNG** should be synchronized. On Mac OS and Windows, patterns are always case-insensitive.

- •

  A pattern beginning with a **(?d)** prefix enables removal of these files if they are preventing directory deletion. This prefix should be used by any OS generated files which you are happy to be removed.

  **NOTE:**

  Prefixes can be specified in any order (e.g. **(?d)(?i)**), but cannot be combined in a single pair of parentheses like (?di).

- •

  A line beginning with **//** is a comment and has no effect. The same double slashes in any other place are interpreted literally, e.g. trying to do **file // comment** will make Syncthing look for a file called **file // comment**.

## EXAMPLE

Given a directory layout starting at the synced folder’s root:

```
.DS_Store
.stignore
foo
foofoo
bar/
    baz
    quux
    quuz
bar2/
    baz
    frobble
My Pictures/
    Img15.PNG
```

and an **.stignore** file with the contents:

```
(?d).DS_Store
!frobble
!quuz
foo
*2
qu*
(?i)my pictures
```

all files and directories called “foo”, ending in a “2” or starting with “qu” will be ignored. The end result becomes:

```
.DS_Store     # ignored, will be deleted if gets in the way of parent directory removal
foo           # ignored, matches "foo"
foofoo        # synced, does not match "foo" but would match "foo*" or "*foo"
bar/          # synced
    baz       # synced
    quux      # ignored, matches "qu*"
    quuz      # synced, matches "qu*" but is excluded by the preceding "!quuz"
bar2/         # synced, despite matching "*2" due to child frobble
    baz       # ignored, due to parent being ignored
    frobble   # synced, due to "!frobble"
My Pictures/  # ignored, matched case insensitive "(?i)my pictures" pattern
    Img15.PNG # ignored, due to parent being ignored
```

**NOTE:**

Please note that directory patterns ending with a slash **some/directory/** matches the content of the directory, but not the directory itself. If you want the pattern to match the directory and its content, make sure it does not have a **/** at the end of the pattern.

Added in version 1.19.0: Default patterns can be configured which will take effect when automatically accepting a folder from a remote device.  The GUI suggests the same patterns when adding a folder manually.  In either case, the **.stignore** file is created with these defaults if none is present yet.

Added in version 2.0.0: Windows users can now use the pipe character (**\|**) to escape metacharacters in the **.stignore** file.  Additionally, adding **#escape=X** to the top of the file, allows users to define **X** as the escape character for that particular file.

## AUTHOR

The Syncthing Authors

## COPYRIGHT

2014-2026, The Syncthing Authors