ExcludeDirectory

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

Command line | Registry

Important: This preference may be used manually in the command line on any platform. Any value set in the [Registry] may be overwritten each time that device policy is downloaded from an inventory beacon. Preferences for the installed and policy-managed FlexNet Inventory Agent follow your settings in the web interface for IT Asset Management at Discovery & Inventory > Settings.
ExcludeDirectory has two closely-related effects:
  1. It excludes specified folder(s) from the path(s) for file inventory scanning declared in IncludeDirectory. If Recurse is True , then all subfolders of the excluded folder are also excluded. Notice that in this case, the folder must first be specified in IncludeDirectory, or else ExcludeDirectory has no effect on the paths scanned for regular file inventory.
  2. It excludes specified folder(s) from the system-wide scan undertaken when PerformOracleFMWScan is true. In this case, there is no preliminary requirement to specify any inclusions, as Oracle requires the system-wide scan.
The combination of these two purposes means that you should use ExcludeDirectory with care, being sure not to accidentally exclude a path for reporting to Oracle when controlling the paths to search for normal file evidence.
Tip: A folder may still be scanned, but as part of the search for ISO tag files, if it is included through EmbedFileContentDirectory and not also excluded by ExcludeEmbedFileContentDirectory. Even in this case, no normal file inventory is returned from a path identified in ExcludeDirectory. However, note that by default, the same values set in the web interface are copied both to the preferences for file evidence and to the preferences for ISO-standard SWID tags (the "*EmbedFileContentDirectory" pair). This means that normally the same paths are searched (or excluded) for both file evidence and SWID tags.
This preference can accept multiple values in a list separated by either commas or semi-colons.
Tip: Comma separators can be used freely. If you use semi-colon separators, it is mandatory on UNIX-like platforms to enclose the list of values in either single or double ASCII quotation marks. (Be careful that any copy/paste doesn't switch to 'smart quotes', and use only plain ASCII quotation marks.)

The value can symbolically refer to another preference by enclosing its name thus: $(preferenceName). References can contain further references.

If a folder is identified in both the ExcludeDirectory and IncludeDirectory preferences, it is excluded. Exclusions always override inclusions.

Note: Inclusions and exclusions can cover folders (and optionally their sub-folders), file name extensions, specific file names, and specific MD5 digest values. To resolve conflicting specifications, the specifications of folders provides a data set to which the following specifications are applied as filters, prioritized from lowest to highest as:
  • File extension
  • File name
  • MD5 value.
For example, if file extension exe is included, filename xcopy.exe excluded, and MD5 value 123456... (the MD5 for xcopy.exe) is included, then the inventory agent includes all files with extension exe except for all versions of xcopy.exe that do not have an MD5 value 123456....

Values

Values / range

Valid folders

Default value
Default behavior on Windows platforms:
$(WinDirectory)
Note: This default prevents inventory collection of potentially millions of file evidence records from (by default) C:\Windows and is subfolders. The default is not visible in the [Registry] but can be over-ridden in the command line as shown below.

Default behavior on Linux platforms:

/var/lib/docker
/var/lib/containerd
/var/lib/kubelet
/var/lib/containers
*/mycontainers/storage/overlay/*
*/.local/share/containers/storage/*
Note: A folder may still be scanned, but as part of the search for general file inventory, if it is included through IncludeDirectory and not also excluded by ExcludeDirectory. Even in this case, no ISO tag files are returned from a path identified in ExcludeEmbedFileContentDirectory.

Example value
This example adds another folder to the current default behavior on Windows platforms:
$(WinDirectory);C:\Temp
Another way to add an exclusion to the current default behavior is:
$(ExcludeDirectory);C:\Temp
If you specify a path in other ways that do not also include the existing default, you over-ride that default, and re-introduce the large volume of file evidence records possible in the Windows folder. For example, this parameter on Windows platforms would include inventory of the $(WinDirectory) folder and its subfolders:
C:\Temp

Command line

Tool

Inventory component (ndtrack)

Example

 
-o ExcludeDirectory=C:\Temp

Registry

Installed by

Manual configuration (otherwise predefined within the tracker).

Computer preference

[Registry]\ManageSoft\Tracker\CurrentVersion

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

Current