Add an exclude field in library.properties specification // allows files exclusion for library build

[MonsieurV]

Hi,

Context: library with "extra" content

I'm using the library specification to publish a library to the Arduino Library.
I've recently added a build log section to my library, as part of the documentation.

Problem: extra content included in library zip, making it bulkier

These build logs contain many images, which are getting included with the rest of the library to the directory. The result is a library zip size inflation:

(See library profile)

This build logs directory was not intended to be published on the library directory / added to the final library zip.

Suggestion: add a mechanism for specifying files to be excluded from the library zip

Add an exclude field in the library.properties specification, allowing library publisher to define a list of files/files pattern to be excluded from the final library build. This would allows publisher to add extra content to their GitHub repositories without it to be systematically published along the library on the Arduino library directory.

Related: arduino/arduino-cli#990 #5688

[bengtmartensson]

Really useful feature -- how did we get by without it?

However, library.properties is a file that tells the user and his tools how to handle the library; information on how the library manager is extracting stuff from Git does not belong there. Possibly a new file?

Additionally, a positive version (i.e. include instead of exclude) may be more useful. Of course, offering both possibilities would be optimal.

[per1234]

Thanks to bengtmatensson for an explanation of how library.properties is not an ideal mechanism for this. I think the alternative proposal of using the standardized functionality already provided by Git will be a better approach so I'll close this in favor of that one: https://github.com/arduino/Arduino/issues/8478