Excluding additional directories

You can exclude additional directories from being scanned by specifying them in the task and then running this task against the chosen endpoints. Excluding directories that do not contain any information relevant for software inventory can significantly speed up the scanning process.

Before you begin

Use ASCII characters to specify the names of directories that you want to exclude from scanning.

About this task

Some directories are excluded from being scanned by default. Ensure that you do not remove them from the list. It might lead to untested and unsupported results in BigFix Inventory. For the full list, see: Directories that are excluded by default
Using asterisks (*) and question marks (?) to specify the additional directories that should be excluded
You can use the asterisk (*) and question mark (?) wildcards to specify which directories to exclude from scanning. Remember about the following rules:
  • Asterisks (*) and question marks (?) should be used according to their regular rules of usage while specifying excluded directories. An asterisk (*) might represent no characters, or a few consecutive characters. A question mark (?) represents a single character.
  • The number of asterisks (*) and question marks (?) in a single path is not limited.
  • Asterisks (*) and question marks (?) are the only wildcards that are supported. Other expressions, such as [a]* or [a-z] are not supported, and should not be used to specify the excluded directories.
Examples of properly specified directories.
Example 1. ?:/System Volume Information

The System Volume Information directory located on any partition is excluded. For example, c:/System Volume Information and d:/System Volume Information.

Example 2. */backup*

Any directory on a file system that begins with backup is excluded. For example, /tmp/backup and /home/user1/backup20170101.

Example 3.
  • /tmp
  • /tmp/
  • /tmp/*

The /tmp directory is excluded.

Note: It is important to place the wildcards in the right position. The following path patters specify different directories.
/tmp/*
Only the /tmp directory is excluded.
/tmp*
The /tmp directory, as well as any directory starting with the tmp string are excluded. For example, /tmp1, /tmp123, and /tmpABC.
*/tmp
Any /tmp directory on file system is excluded. For example, /tmp, /var/tmp, and /home/user/test/tmp.
Example 4. *per*lib6*all

Any directory path that contains the per string which is followed by a string that contains lib6 and ends with all. For example, /usr/opt/perl5/lib64/5.10.1/aix-thread-multi-64all and /usr/opt/perl5/lib64/site_perl/5.10.1/aix-thread-multi-64all.

However, according to the rules, this example does not cover the following path: /usr/opt/perl5/lib64/5.10.1/aix-thread-multi-64all2 as it does not end with the all.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the BigFix console.
  2. In the navigation tree, click Sites > External Sites > IBM BigFix Inventory v9, and then click Fixlets and Tasks.
  3. Select the Add Excluded Directories task.
  4. Specify which directories are to be excluded from scanning. If you specify a particular directory, it is excluded along with all its sub-directories.Windows Use only slashes (/) in the directory path.

    Image showing the field for specifying excluded directories.
  5. Click Take Action and select endpoints for which you want to apply the changes.

Results

You added new entries to the list of directories that are excluded from scanning.