Glob Patterns Reference

Visual Studio Code uses glob patterns in many components. Examples include setting file and folder includes/excludes in features such as Search, hiding files from the File Explorer or marking them readonly, and setting up programming language-specific file associations.

Glob pattern syntax

VS Code supports the following glob syntax:

• / to separate path segments
• * to match zero or more characters in a path segment
• ? to match on one character in a path segment
• ** to match any number of path segments, including none
• {} to group conditions (for example {**/*.html,**/*.txt} matches all HTML and text files)
• [] to declare a range of characters to match (example.[0-9] to match on example.0, example.1, …)
• [!...] to negate a range of characters to match (example.[!0-9] to match on example.a, example.b, but not example.0)

Note: Paths are separated by / and not \ even on Windows. But when applied, glob patterns will match paths with both slash and backslashes.

Special cases

Glob patterns in the Search view work differently than in settings such as files.exclude and search.exclude. In the settings, you must use **/example to match a folder named example in subfolder folder1/example in your workspace. In the Search view, the ** prefix is assumed. The glob patterns in these settings are always evaluated relative to the path of the workspace folder.

Common questions

Why do glob patterns not support feature X or Y?

We implemented our own glob matching library with a goal to provide optimal performance for most typical patterns. If you expect a certain glob syntax to be supported, you can report an issue with your usecase.

Why does my glob pattern not work?

Make sure that on Windows you are using / to separate paths and not \. Glob patterns in VS Code require / for separating paths but they will both match on / and \ in paths.