ack: Exclude specific directories from search via regex

Question

How do I ignore specific directories via RegEx with ack?

I can use the --ignore-dir option, but this does not let me specify a RegEx. I want to be able to i

Answer 1

In recent versions of ack, you can use regular expressions with --ignore-dir.

From this thread:

Yes, in 2.15_01 we added:

• ack now supports --ignore-dir=match:.... Thanks, Ailin Nemui! (GitHub ticket #42)

GitHub link: https://github.com/petdance/ack2/issues/42

Sadly, I think this only supports matching the base directory name, not the full path.

For instance, you cannot match a path like ".*/docs/generated/.*" with it.

For that, see the GitHub issue 291.

update for 2020: it looks like this is now moved to ack3 (github issue).