Standard naming conventions

Sophos Anti-Virus validates the paths and file names of scanning exclusion items against standard Windows naming conventions. For example, a folder name may contain spaces but may not contain only spaces.

Exclude a specific file

Specify both the path and file name to exclude a specific file. The path can include a drive letter or network share name:

C:\Documents\CV.doc

\\Server\Users\Documents\CV.doc

Exclude all files with the same name

Specify a file name without a path to exclude all files with that name wherever they are located in the file system:

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Exclude everything on a drive or network share

Specify a drive letter or network share name to exclude everything on that drive or network share:

C:

\\Server\<sharename>\

Exclude a specific folder

Specify a folder path including a drive letter or network share name to exclude everything in that folder and below:

D:\Tools\logs

Exclude all folders with the same name

Specify a folder path without a drive letter or network share name to exclude everything from that folder and below on any drive or network share. For example, \Tools\logs excludes the following folders:

C:\Tools\logs

\\Server\Tools\logs

The ? and * wildcards

Use the ? wildcard in a file name or extension to match any single character.

At the end of a file name or extension, the ? wildcard matches any single character or no characters: For example, file??.txt matches file.txt, file1.txt, and file12.txt, but not file123.txt.

Use the * wildcard in a file name or extension, in the form [file name].* or *.[extension]:

Correct

file.*

*.txt

Incorrect

file*.txt

file.txt*

file.*txt

Multiple file extensions

File names with multiple extensions are treated as if the last extension is the extension and the rest are part of the file name:

MySample.txt.doc = file name MySample.txt + extension .doc.