Nextcloud files sync configuration for programmers

About

By default Nextcloud

• Does not sync hidden files (files having .* naming pattern) which are critical for coding projects.
• Synchronises unneeded large files that should be left out as they can be recreated on each machine instantly (node_modules, C/C++ compilation intermediate products, a.o.)
• Synchronises unneeded IDE caching, layout, logging etc. files.

This list tries to list all files that could/should be excluded when Synch hidden files option is turned on and offers a settings file that can be supplied to Nextcloud.

Install custom patterns

See sync-exclude.lst contained in repo.

It includes all patterns discussed below.

To install:

• Quit Nextcloud
• Place sync-exclude.lst in correct location
  • macOS ~/Library/Preferences/Nextcloud/sync-exclude.lst or (for older versions) ~/Library/Application\ Support/Nextcloud/sync-exclude.lst
  • MSW10 %AppData%\Nextcloud\sync-exclude.lst or %LocalAppData%\Nextcloud\sync-exclude.lst
  • File may not exist in path after fresh install. Within Nextcloud Settings under General tab click Edit Ignored files to bring up modal - click Restore Defaults, it should create file and fill it with Built in patterns discussed below.
• Run Nextcloud client
• Pause synchronisation
• Within Settings under General tab click Edit Ignored files to bring up modal
• Enable Sync hidden files
• Check Files ignored by patterns list, it should include those specified in sync-exclude.lst
• Press OK
• Unpause synchronisation (or yet better, restart Nextcloud client once more)

What to include

By allowing syncing of hidden files, we will sync

• Git - .git directories and all .git* conf files
• Web development stuff such as .atomignore, .babelrc, .env, .eslintignore*, .eslintrc*, .rsyncexclude, .stylelintrc* a.o.

What to leave out

By allowing syncing of hidden files there are lots of hidden files that should be excluded anyways. Apart from those we should make patterns to leave out also non-hidden files such as

• IDEs caches: Development on Visual Code, Atom, Sublime
• IDEs caches: C/C++/ObjC++ desktop and handheld development on Xcode, Code::Blocks, Visual Studio
• IDEs caches: C embedded development on Eclipse, Visual Studio
• IDEs caches: Old projects that used NetBeans
• Package manager directories, that are large, but can be easily recreated (i.e. node_modules/)
• Build side products
• OS cache, hidden files

What should be left, but is not

A good example in case of programming is leaving out *.obj file sync. But we cannot, as extension is same as Wavefront OBJ File that we want to sync.

Exclude - Built in patterns (static hardcoded)

These patterns are Nextcloud specific, they are static hardcoded, defined outside sync-exclude.lst.

Pattern	Allow deletion	Description	Notes
.csync_journal.db*
._sync_*.db*
.sync_*.db*

Exclude - Built in patterns

These patterns are set out of box. Meaning that a clean install of Nextcloud would put sync-exclude.lst in locations mentioned above and the file would have these patterns specified in it.

Pattern	Allow deletion	Description	Notes
Current version
*~		BSD/nix
~$*
.~lock.*		file locking
~*.tmp		temporary files
*.~*	Y	temporary files
Icon\r*	Y	icon folder, macOS
.DS_Store	Y	dir attributes, macOS
.ds_store	Y	dir attributes, macOS
*.textClipping		text clipping, macOS
._*		file information, thumbnails for HFS+/Unix/UFS
Thumbs.db	Y	image file caches, MSW
photothumb.db	Y	thumbnails by PhotoScape
System Volume Information		NTFS related, MSW
.*.sw?
.*.*sw?
.TemporaryItems	Y	temporary storage, macOS
.Trashes	Y	trash temporary, macOS
.DocumentRevisions-V100	Y	internal version control, macOS
.Trash-*	Y	Linux trash folder, nix
.fseventd		filesystem events log, macOS
.apdisk		directories on remote AFP shares, created by macOS
.Spotlight-V100		macOS Spotlight index data
.directory		KDE directory preferences, nix
*.part		partial downloads
*.filepart		partial downloads
*.crdownload		partial downloads, Chrome
*.kate-swp		Kate swap files
*.gnucach.tmp-*
*.synkron.*		Synkron cache
*.sync.ffs_db		FreeFileSync db
*.symform		Symform files
*.symform-store		Symform files
*.fuse-hidden*		FUSE mount leftovers
*.unison		Unison locks
.nfs*		NFS mounting leftovers
.stfolder		Syncthing marking
.stignore		Syncthing ignores
.stversions		Syncthing versioning
My Saved Places.		Your Saved Places.
\#*#		emacs recovery files
*.sb-*

Exclude - Built in patterns (historic)

These patterns at some point were set out of box. They are reasonable and should be kept.

Pattern	Allow deletion	Description	Notes
In previous versions (that should be excluded)
desktop.ini		folder config file, MSW
.*.*.sw?
*.nfs		NFS mounting leftovers

Exclude - Custom patterns

Pattern	Allow deletion	Description	Notes
macOS
.fseventsd	Y	macOS File System Events notification mechanism
.com.apple.timemachine.donotpresent	Y	macOS
.AppleDouble	Y	macOS
.LSOverride	Y	macOS
.VolumeIcon.icns	Y	icons, macOS
.AppleDB	Y	directories on remote AFP shares, created by macOS
.AppleDesktop	Y	directories on remote AFP shares, created by macOS
._.TemporaryItems	Y	temporary storage, macOS
Network Trash Folder/		directories on remote AFP shares, created by macOS
Temporary Items/		directories on remote AFP shares, created by macOS
MSW
ehthumbs.db	Y	image file caches, MSW
ehthumbs_vista.db	Y	image file caches, MSW
*.stackdump	Y	image file caches, MSW
Desktop.ini	Y	folder config file, MSW	Capitalised duplicate for built in pattern
$RECYCLE.BIN/	Y	Recycle Bin used on file shares, MSW
*.lnk	Y	alias, MSW
BSD/nix
.fuse_hidden*	Y	alias, MSW
ANDROID
.csettings	Y	Android
Browser download partials
.crdownload		Chrome and Edge	included in OOB patterns
.part		Firefox	included in OOB patterns
.opdownload		Opera
.partial		Internet Explorer 11
.download		Safari
Node.js/NPM
node_modules/	Y	dir for NPM	huge stuff, package.josn is synced, just do npm i
.npm	Y	NPM cache directory
.node_repl_history	Y	node.js REPL commands history
npm-debug.log*	Y	node.js logs
.lock-wscript	Y	node-waf configuration
Bower
bower_components/	Y	Bower components dir	bower.json is synced, just do bower install
.bower-cache	Y	Bower junk
.bower-registry	Y	Bower junk
.bower-tmp	Y	Bower junk
Grunt
.grunt	Y	Grunt cache
.tmp/	Y	Grunt preprocess tmp dir
Composer
vendor/		Composer	composer.json is synced, so just do composer install. *Beware, this is aggressive exclude - generic dir name, so some stuff that is not Composerish might not be synced!
Sass
.sass-cache/	Y	Sass cache
Sublime Text
*.tmlanguage.cache	Y	Sublime Text cache
*.tmPreferences.cache	Y	Sublime Text cache
*.stTheme.cache	Y	Sublime Text cache
*.sublime-workspace	Y	Sublime Text cache	workspace files are user-specific
Xcode, Clang
*~.nib	Y	Xcode
*.swp	Y	Xcode
*.out	Y	Xcode	Beware, this is aggressive exclude
*.pbxuser	Y	Xcode	workspace files are user-specific
*.perspective	Y	Xcode	workspace files are user-specific
*.perspectivev3	Y	Xcode	workspace files are user-specific
*.mode1v3	Y	Xcode	workspace files are user-specific
*.mode2v3	Y	Xcode	workspace files are user-specific
*.user	Y	Xcode	workspace files are user-specific
xcuserdata/	Y	Xcode	exclude xcuserdata
*.xcworkspace	Y	Xcode	keep out for now
*.xccheckout	Y	Xcode	workspace files are user-specific
*.buld/	Y	Xcode
*.hmap	Y	Clang header map
dgph	Y	dependency graph information
*.d	Y	header dependencies
*.dia	Y	serialised diagnostics blob
*.LinkFileList	Y	what it says
*_dependency_info.dat	Y	contains all libs, frameworks that are linked
Visual Studio, MSVC
*.sdf	Y	Visual Studio
*.opensdf	Y	Visual Studio
*.suo	Y	Visual Studio
*.pdb	Y	Visual Studio	Beware, same as Protein Data Bank file
*.ilk	Y	Visual Studio
*.aps	Y	Visual Studio
*.ncb	Y	Visual Studio
ipch/	Y	Visual Studio
*.tlog/	Y	Visual Studio
*.tlog	Y	Visual Studio
*.lastbuildstate	Y	Visual Studio
*.idb	Y	MSVC++
Visual Code
.history	Y	Visual Code local history of files
Platform.io
.pio/	Y
.pioenvs/	Y
.piolibdeps/	Y
Code::Blocks
*.depend	Y	Code::Blocks
*.layout	Y	Code::Blocks	workspace files are user-specific
Eclipse
.metadata	Y	Eclipse
local.properties	Y	Eclipse
.externalToolBuilders	Y	Eclipse
Others
pids/		runtime data
*.pid	Y	runtime data
*.seed	Y	runtime data
*.o		build products	Beware, this is aggressive exclude
*.idb		build products	Beware, this is aggressive exclude
*.mode*		build products	Beware, this is aggressive exclude
*.dSYM		build products	Beware, this is aggressive exclude
*.pyc		build products	Beware, this is aggressive exclude
*.cpp.eep			Beware, this is aggressive exclude
*.cpp.elf			Beware, this is aggressive exclude
*.cpp.hex			Beware, this is aggressive exclude

Do not exclude

Pattern	Allow deletion	Description	Notes
.htaccess		Apache configuration files	When Nextcloud is run by Nginx (or even in the case of Apache if datadirectory is outside webroot) it is safe to allow syncing .htaccess. [*1]

[*1] Remeber to remove '.htaccess' in Nextcloud's config.php from blacklist

  // default implicit
  // 'blacklisted_files' => ['.htaccess'],
  // by setting empty array .htaccess is allowed
  'blacklisted_files' => [],

Todo

• Redo all Visual Studio / MSVC stuff
• Check file patterns for VisualGDB junk files.
• Suggest rule importing menu in Nextcloud client app Settings that can take lists in LST (CSV/XML) format and replace and/or merge it with existing whatever settings. It is not so much about user friendly way to add patterns, it is more about merging patterns. Say your team start using new app/tech that generates files you want to exclude - just generate patterns ignore list and send out to everybody in the workgroup.