Exclude directories and files from Snyk Code CLI tests

When you test a Snyk Code repository using the CLI, you can exclude certain directories and files from the CLI test by using the snyk ignore --file-path command. When you run this command, the .snyk file is created automatically in your repository, containing the name of the directory or file you specified for exclusion.

• You can also create the .snyk file manually in your repository, and use it to exclude directories and files from the CLI test. For more information about the manual creation of the .snyk file, see Exclude directories and files from Project import.

• The snyk ignore --file-path command does not ignore specific vulnerability issues. It excludes only directories and files from the CLI test.

• Consider excluding directories and files only if you do not publish or compile them into production. If a trace goes through an excluded file or directory with existing vulnerabilities, Snyk might miss potential issues.

Exclude directories and files from the CLI test

Follow these steps to exclude Snyk Code directories and files from the CLI test:

1. In the terminal, change the directory to the folder you want to test.

The command snyk ignore --file-path applies only to the folder from which you are running it and the sub-folders and files of that folder.

2. In the terminal, enter the following:

snyk ignore --file-path=<directory_or_file>

where directory_or_file is the name of the directory or file you want to exclude from the test, for example, db.js.

The .snyk file is created in the root folder, containing the directory or file that was specified for exclusion.

The .snyk file is created as a hidden file. If you do not see it in your root folder, use the View hidden files option on your machine.

3. Optionally, to specify several directories or files for exclusion enter:

snyk ignore --file-path=<directory1_or_file1> && snyk ignore --file-path=<directory2_or_file2> && snyk ignore --file-path=<directory3_or_file3>

From now on, when you run the snyk code test command from the selected folder, the specified directories or files will be excluded from the test.

Re-include excluded files in the CLI test

To re-include in the test directories or files that were excluded from it, manually edit or delete the .snyk file.

1. In the snyk-goof-master folder, 12 issues were found in three different files: app.js, db.js, and routes/index.js:

Issues found by a CLI test

2. To exclude the app.js and db.js files, and display only issues that are discovered in the routes/index.js file, enter:

snyk ignore --file-path=app.js && snyk ignore --file-path=db.js

snyk ignore command in the terminal

3. When you enter the command snyk ignore, the .snyk file is created automatically in the snyk-goof-master folder:

.snykfile listed in the folder

This .snyk file contains the files specified for exclusion:

Contents of .snyk file

4. When the test runs again, the app.js and db.js files are excluded from the test, and the results show only the issues that were found in the routes/index.js file:

Issues found after using the ignore command