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How to scan only certain folders

nodis

Apologies for what may be a dumb question, but I've searched through he FAQs and this forum and can't find the answer.

My question: it's obvious how to exclude certain folders from on-access scanning, but how do I flip that on its head and INCLUDE only certain folders and NOT scan the rest?

Specifically, I would like to run on-access scanning ONLY on my Apple Mail directory (~/Library/Mail), Desktop (~/Desktop), and downloads folder (~/Downloads).  I want to NOT scan everything else.

How do I do that?  Thanks in advance.

:1001163


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    Hello Paul,

    this is not possible and probably never will be.

    Why? The decision whether to scan or not has to be made in real-time when the scanner is notified of an object access and as on-access shall not cause excessive delays the algorithm has to be as simple as possible. This is different from custom scans where timing doesn't have these stringent conditions and the list of objects to scan can be built - exaggerated - at leisure. Actually also there processing is rather simple: Take what's in Scan Items ignoring what's in Excluded Items. Thus you won't even be able to configure a custom scan to do what you outlined without enumerating the volumes to scan omitting the exclusion (and this is generally not feasible for on-access as you'd have to adjust the settings before you mount a volume).

    Nested or hierarchical include/exclude lists not only degrade performance and offset at least part of what you gain from not scanning but are also a hell to set up correctly.

    All in all you should really think about why you can't afford the resources (even if it seems a waste right now) considering what you spend in other areas or applications not only on functionality but simply on "looks".

    Christian

    :1001181
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  • 0

    Hello Paul,

    this is not possible and probably never will be.

    Why? The decision whether to scan or not has to be made in real-time when the scanner is notified of an object access and as on-access shall not cause excessive delays the algorithm has to be as simple as possible. This is different from custom scans where timing doesn't have these stringent conditions and the list of objects to scan can be built - exaggerated - at leisure. Actually also there processing is rather simple: Take what's in Scan Items ignoring what's in Excluded Items. Thus you won't even be able to configure a custom scan to do what you outlined without enumerating the volumes to scan omitting the exclusion (and this is generally not feasible for on-access as you'd have to adjust the settings before you mount a volume).

    Nested or hierarchical include/exclude lists not only degrade performance and offset at least part of what you gain from not scanning but are also a hell to set up correctly.

    All in all you should really think about why you can't afford the resources (even if it seems a waste right now) considering what you spend in other areas or applications not only on functionality but simply on "looks".

    Christian

    :1001181
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