Exclude grammar

--exclude/-X (on scan, install, and dbdump) takes a match statement: an optional leading ! (negate), zero or more inline tests, and a trailing glob pattern.

(?type:file)**/*.pyc        # every .pyc file
!(?meta:keep=1)**/tmp/**     # keep entries tagged keep=1 under tmp/

Structure

[!] [(?[!]name:arg)...] <glob>

• ! at the very start negates the whole statement.
• (?name:arg) is an inline test; prefix the name with ! ((?!type:file)) to invert just that test.
• <glob> is a path glob (*, **, ?); an absolute pattern is anchored to the scan/copy root.

Tests

Test	Matches when
(?type:file\|directory\|symlink)	the entry's type equals the argument
(?meta:key=value)	the entry's meta[key] equals value

Multiple statements are evaluated in order; the first that yields a definite match/skip decides. A statement with no definite result falls through to the next, and an empty exclude set matches everything (nothing is excluded).

Repeat the flag for each statement — -X takes exactly one per occurrence, so they never run together with the paths that follow:

pkgforge install -d -X '**/*.pyc' -X '(?type:directory)**/tmp' build /opt/app

Space-separating them after one flag (-X '**/*.pyc' '**/tmp') does not add a second statement: the extra word is read as a positional argument.