vet supports path exclusions for scenarios where a directory is the scan target but certain path patterns within the directory should be excluded from the scan. This feature is available only for the scan command and helps optimize scan performance and focus on relevant code.

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Basic Usage

Exclude a single path pattern during directory scanning:

vet scan -D /path/to/target --exclude 'docs/*'

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Multiple Exclusions

Specify multiple path patterns for exclusion:

vet scan -D /path/to/target \
    --exclude 'docs/*' \
    --exclude 'sub/dir/path/*' \
    --exclude '*.test.js'

The exclusion pattern matches any path, directory, or file. Internally, it uses Go’s regexp.MatchString function.

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Common Exclusion Patterns

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Documentation and Build Artifacts

vet scan -D . \
    --exclude 'docs/*' \
    --exclude 'build/*' \
    --exclude 'dist/*' \
    --exclude 'target/*' \
    --exclude '*.generated.*'

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Test Files and Directories

vet scan -D . \
    --exclude 'test/*' \
    --exclude 'tests/*' \
    --exclude '*_test.go' \
    --exclude '*.test.js' \
    --exclude 'spec/*'

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Version Control and Dependencies

vet scan -D . \
    --exclude '.git/*' \
    --exclude 'node_modules/*' \
    --exclude 'vendor/*' \
    --exclude '.venv/*' \
    --exclude '__pycache__/*'

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Development Tools

vet scan -D . \
    --exclude '.idea/*' \
    --exclude '.vscode/*' \
    --exclude '*.log' \
    --exclude 'tmp/*' \
    --exclude 'temp/*'

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Advanced Pattern Examples

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File Extension Exclusions

# Exclude specific file types
vet scan -D . \
    --exclude '.*\.md$' \
    --exclude '.*\.txt$' \
    --exclude '.*\.png$' \
    --exclude '.*\.jpg$'

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Environment-Specific Exclusions

# Development environment
vet scan -D . \
    --exclude 'dev-tools/*' \
    --exclude 'local-config/*' \
    --exclude '.*\.dev\..*'

# Production build
vet scan -D . \
    --exclude 'test/*' \
    --exclude 'examples/*' \
    --exclude 'dev-dependencies/*'

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Complex Pattern Matching

# Exclude multiple similar patterns
vet scan -D . \
    --exclude '.*/test/.*' \
    --exclude '.*/tests/.*' \
    --exclude '.*/spec/.*' \
    --exclude '.*/mocks/.*'

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Use Cases

Performance Optimization

Skip large directories that don’t contain relevant package manifests

Test Environment Exclusion

Focus on production dependencies by excluding test files

Build Artifact Filtering

Avoid scanning generated files and build outputs

Monorepo Management

Selectively scan specific parts of large monorepos

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Makefile Integration

# Makefile with different scan targets
.PHONY: scan-prod scan-dev scan-all

scan-prod:
	vet scan -D . \
		--exclude 'test/*' \
		--exclude 'dev-tools/*' \
		--exclude 'docs/*' \
		--report-json production-scan.json

scan-dev:
	vet scan -D . \
		--exclude 'node_modules/*' \
		--exclude '.git/*' \
		--report-json development-scan.json

scan-all:
	vet scan -D . \
		--exclude '.git/*' \
		--report-json complete-scan.json