Choose folders to be ignored during search in VS Code

Question

Right now when I use   O to search for files  the fuzzy matching appears to operate over all files in the current project  Unfortunately  this includes a number of files from build and vendor directories  So  for instance  if I want to search for all JavaScript files and do   O and type  js in  the file and symbol results include around 1500 hits and all of them except the two ones are complete noise   Is there a way to specify certain directories to be ignored for purpose of search

User · Answer

If I understand correctly you want to exclude files from the vscode fuzzy finder. If that is the case, I am guessing the above answers are for older versions of vscode. What worked for me is adding:

"files.exclude": {
    "**/directory-you-want-to-exclude": true,
    "**/.git": true,
    "**/.svn": true,
    "**/.hg": true,
    "**/CVS": true,
    "**/.DS_Store": true
}

to my settings.json. This file can be opened through File>Preferences>Settings

User · Answer

I m an idiot so it took me a while to realize this  but make sure that the Gear icon is clicked on the global search so your settings can be applied

User · Answer

Update April 2018  You can do this in the search section of vscode by pre-fixing an exclamation mark to each folder or file you want to exclude

User · Answer

I wanted to search for the term  Stripe  in all files except those within a plugin   plugin  folder  or within the files ending in   bak     bak2  or   log   this is within the wp-contents folder structure of a wordpress install      I just wanted to do this search one time and very quickly  so I didn t want to alter the search settings of my environment   Here s how I did it  note the double asteriks for the folder     Search Term  Stripe  Include Files   blank   Exclude Files    bak     log     plugins      Here s what it looked like

User · Answer

These preferences appear to have changed since  alex-dima s answer  Changing settings From menu choose  File - gt  Preferences - gt  Settings - gt  User Workspace Settings  Filter default settings to search  You can modify the search exclude setting  copy from default setting to your user or workspace settings   That will apply only to searches  Note that settings from files exclude will be automatically applied  If the settings don t work   Make sure you didn t turn the search exclusion off  In the search area  expand the  quot files to exclude quot  input box and make sure that the gear icon is selected   You might also need to Clear Editor History  See  https   github com Microsoft vscode issues 6502     Example settings For example  I am developing an EmberJS application which saves thousands of files under the tmp directory  If you select WORKSPACE SETTINGS on the right side of the search field  the search exclusion will only be applied to this particular project  And a corresponding  vscode folder will be added to the root folder containing settings json  This is my example settings                    quot search exclude quot              quot     git quot   true           quot    node modules quot   true           quot    bower components quot   true           quot    tmp quot   true                      Note  Include a    at the beginning of any search exclusion to cover the search term over any folders and sub-folders  Picture of search before updating settings  Before updating the settings the search results are a mess   Picture of search after updating settings  After updating the settings the search results are exactly what I want

User · Answer

The short answer is to comma-separate the folders you want to ignore in  files to exclude     Start workspace wide search  CTRL SHIFT f Expand the global search with the three-dot button Enter your search term As an example  in the files to exclude-input field write babel concat to exclude the folder  babel  and the folder  concat  in the search  make sure the exclude button is enabled   Press enter to get the results

User · Answer

If you have multiple folders in your workspace  set up the search exclude on each folder  There s a drop-down next to WORKSPACE SETTINGS   Folder Settings Tab

User · Answer

Forget aboves for vscode exclude search pattern  try to below pattern it is working for any folder in vscode last version             locales    for example i have searched like below vscode example clude settings  files to include     js  files to exclude      node modules           locales            theme         admin client

User · Answer

This answer is outdated  If these are folders you want to ignore in a certain workspace  you can go to   AppMenu  gt  Preferences  gt  Workspace Settings  Otherwise  if you want these folders to be ignored in all your workspaces  go to   AppMenu  gt  Preferences  gt  User Settings  and add the following to your configuration     -------- Search configuration --------     The folders to exclude when doing a full text search in the workspace   search excludeFolders           git        node modules        bower components        path to other folder to exclude       The difference between workspace and user settings is explained in the customization docs

User · Answer

I wanted to exclude 1 of the Workspace folders completely  but found this to be difficult  since regardless of the exclusion patterns  it always runs the search on each of the Workspace folders   In the end  the solution was to add    to the Folder Settings search exclusion patterns

User · Answer

After you setup the search exclude and file exclude mentioned on the previous answers  run the command   Clear Editor History   Use the Command Palette to do that - CTRL   SHIFT   P    Only after that the excluded files will not appear on your quick open menu   Update  You can run the command  Clear Command History  too  I forgot about that

User · Answer

Exclude all from subfolders works like this  version 2019   include    db   exclude    db

User · Answer

Create a file with  gitignore  amp  put the folder or file name which one you want to ignore   to ignore everything below node modules folder  echo node modules   gt   gitignore

User · Answer

Make sure the  Use Exclude Settings and Ignore Files  cog is selected

User · Answer

Extending the most voted answer  now there is an extension to achieve what is described there to toggle quickly in a GUI way  It s called Explorer Exclude  You can install this with this command  ext install RedVanWorkshop explorer-exclude-vscode-extension  Demo

User · Answer

Hi you need to find settings and add a new exclude pattern for history files

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