Azure-devops-docs: CopyFiles task: Negative globbing doesn't work for me

[benjamincburns]

I'm using a YAML build pipeline definition. I'm trying to exclude the git directory and node_modules directories from my artifact publish. I've tried a bunch of different permutations, but I can't seem to get it to work. Based on the above, and on the note over in the patterns reference doc to use / instead of \ as a path separator (this doc doesn't seem to follow that, however), I'd expect the following config to work. Instead, it copies zero files.

- task: CopyFiles@2
  inputs:
    targetFolder: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
    contents: |
      '**'
      '!(node_modules|.git)/**'

Alternatively, I'd expect the following to work (this also copies zero files):

- task: CopyFiles@2
  inputs:
    targetFolder: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
    contents: |
      '**'
      '**/!(node_modules|.git)/**'

This one also doesn't work (again, zero files copied):

- task: CopyFiles@2
  inputs:
    targetFolder: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
    contents: '**/!(node_modules|.git)/**'

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Document Details

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• ID: 81f02378-b85b-d3a4-d3c8-f07d935367da
• Version Independent ID: fab57f76-35d2-4024-6f7f-1740d7b24743
• Content: Copy Files task - Azure Pipelines & TFS
• Content Source: docs/pipelines/tasks/utility/copy-files.md
• Product: devops
• GitHub Login: @andyjlewis
• Microsoft Alias: alewis

[rncwnd79]

This definitely needs a brush up!

This didn't work:
!node_modules/**/*

Nor did:
!node_modules/**

Also not working:
!**/node_modules/**

This works:
!$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/node_modules/**

[vtbassmatt]

There are a couple separate issues here:

• You don't need to quote lines in a | string in YAML. So it should be:

contents: |
  **
  **/!(node_modules|.git)/**

That said, it still doesn't seem to work :) so I've filed a bug to get to the bottom of why. https://github.com/microsoft/azure-pipelines-tasks/issues/10395

[vtbassmatt]

The parenthetical pattern needs to include a leading +, per fnmatch syntax.

contents: |
  **
  !+(node_modules|.git)/**

We can certainly doc that a little more clearly, so leaving this issue open.

[mmenees-nh]

I'm not sure why this issue is closed; I'm using the classic editor, and negative globbing doesn't work for me:

!.git/**/*
!.gitignore

I wondered if it was something with the dot files, but it even fails on something like README.MD.

[siburny]

@mmeneesnh I just set up a task using the classical editor, and I was able to exclude ".git" folder like this:

**/*
!.git/**/*