Sync hidden files by default

[cyberalt1]

MEGAcmd version

2.1.1

Operating System/Platform

Linux

Platform version. In the case of Linux, please enter the Linux distribution you are using.

Devuan

Steps

1..

Expected behavior

.

Actual behavior

This might count as multiple separate issues but by default, megacmd doesn't sync hidden files (anything that begins with a dot). However a lot of projects have hidden files like this and I think it would be a better default to allow syncing hidden files by default.

You can work around it, but it's difficult. The only way I've found to do it is to first sync the directory, then use mega-exclude -d, to remove the exclude for hidden files, then unsync and sync again which implies another issue that sync doesn't auto-recognize the exclude after the change was made.

MegaCMD is an amazing feature which no other cloud service offers something comparable to, I think it can be even better though if this is improved upon.

[polmr]

Hi @cyberalt1

Thanks for your words.

dot begining files/folders are excluded by default indeed. It's somewhat controversial and subject to each user's case. Some may prefer to have them excluded by default, some won't. As a countermeasure: MEGAcmd offers flexibility around that: you can modify default exclusion rules (that would be applied to new syncs) and also modify exclusion rules for existing syncs.

Note mega-exclude is a deprecated command. Use mega-sync-ignore instead. sync ignore feature some rich engine to set exclusions and inclusions, though its usage needs a little bit of reading, but here some examples:

You can see default exclusion rules via:

mega-sync-ignore --show DEFAULT

or you can remove some default exclusion with:

mega-sync-ignore --remove-exclusion :.* DEFAULT

^ after that, new syncs will not include hidden folders exclusions by default.

You can also apply that to existing syncs, using the sync id (or the local path) to the sync instead of DEFAULT.

Further reading here