Patterns are used in the Filter edit box to select the files you want included and/or excluded when comparing directories. A pattern is one or more file masks separated by semicolons or a slash.
A mask is a file name optionally followed by an extension (paths are not allowed, so you cannot include \) which may contain any number of copies (including none) of the following wildcars:
So, choice?.* will match choices.doc and choice1.dat, but not choice.doc. On the other hand, choice*.* will match the previously mentioned three files, as well as, choices are good.rtf. Of course, *.* will match any file.
If no extension is provided, .* will be assumed: so * also will match any file. But, a single dot indicates a void extension, so *. will match any file without extension.
Spaces at the beginning and the end of a mask will be removed, but you can avoid it be putting the mask inside a pair of double quotes, which will be removed. So, to match *help.me , with a trailing space, you have to enter "*help.me ".
A pattern is a single mask or a sequence of masks separated by semicolons. For instance, to match all documents you could use something like *.doc;*.txt;*.rtf.
If the pattern includes a slash, any file matched by the masks after it will be excluded. So, to match all documents except the ones containing the letter w, you can use *.doc;*.txt;*.rtf/*w*.
If the pattern starts with a slash, a default *.* is added in front of it, i.e., all files will be included except the ones matched by the mask(s) after the slash. For example, to match all files except the backup files produced by some editors, you might want to use /*.bak. To exclude temporary files you may try /*.tmp;*.*~*.