How to get intuitive usage when mixing file paths and ignore paths?

[ross-nordstrom]

I found when I use "exclude paths", then my filter always produces a false positive causing my workflow to do the wrong thing.

Example:

      - uses: dorny/paths-filter@v2
        id: services
        with:
          filters: |
            ui:
              - 'ui/**'
              - '!ui/README.md'
              - '!ui/cypress/**'

I see this is "expected" in the docs:

Use Case

I'm using this for a build matrix to only build services with code changes. I'm making use of the slick .changes property you produce for that:

  check-run-flags:
    outputs:
      services: ${{ steps.services.outputs.changes }}

  build:
    needs:
      - check-run-flags
    strategy:
      matrix:
        # See: https://stackoverflow.com/a/65434401/18401629
        node: ${{ needs.check-run-flags.services }}

Workaround

To make this work, I've switched my filters to ONLY use "include paths."

          filters: |
            ui:
              - 'ui/package*.json'
              - 'ui/angular.json'
              - 'ui/Dockerfile'
              - 'ui/Dockerfile'
              - 'ui/nginx.conf'
              - 'ui/src/**'
              - 'ui/ui/**/*.{yml,yaml}'

Expectation

When ! paths (exclude paths) are in the filter, the filter should be true iff any(include_paths) && all(exclude_paths).

Maybe my expectation is actually possible, and I'm just missing an option somewhere??

[makenosound]

I have exactly the same use-case described here, and would love to see it as a native option in the action.

[ja-leo]

same here, it would be great to see this working with the excludes flag

[francisInfact]

Also have the same issue - expectation would be that the filter would be true if all rules match.

[DavidVaness]

I ran into this today, really cumbersome for us because I have 2 files per app per filter I need to ignore (package.json & CHANGELOG.md) in our monorepository. The consequence of targeting all subdirectories and files to ignore these, is a bit problematic because it if a dev adds a new file / directory it will be ignored then, very brittle this approach.

@dorny any ideas how to solve this? 🙏🏼