*.js is excluding more files than expected

[JohnnyWalkerDigital]

Describe the bug

Apologies if this is not a bug, but I do not understand what is happening here. I have an exclude-pattern rule that is excluding a file, and I cannot understand why.

This rule:

<exclude-pattern>*.js</exclude-pattern>

Leads to this file being excluded:

<file>app/Services/JsonLdProcessingService.php</file>

I have read the documentation and I understand that the exclude-pattern uses regex, and also that * is converted to .* for convenience. I also understand that . should be escaped if you wish it to be treated like a literal dot (so my rule is flawed).

However the regex pattern /.*.js/ still does not match app/Services/JsonLdProcessingService.php so what is going on?

Custom ruleset

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ruleset name="My Custom Standard">
    <rule ref="PSR12"/>
    <file>app/Services/JsonLdProcessingService.php</file>
    <exclude-pattern>*.js</exclude-pattern>
</ruleset>

To reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Create a file called app/Services/JsonLdProcessingService.php with the code sample above...
2. Run vendor/bin/phpcs -vv app/Services/JsonLdProcessingService.php
3. See error message displayed

ERROR: No files were checked.
All specified files were excluded or did not match filtering rules.

Expected behavior

I'd expect the file to be checked?

Versions (please complete the following information)

Operating System	macOS Tahoe 26.4
PHP version	8.4.19
PHP_CodeSniffer version	4.0.1
Standard	PSR12
Install type	Composer (global)

Additional context

Apologies if this is my misunderstanding!

Please confirm

• [*] I have searched the issue list and am not opening a duplicate issue.
• [*] I have read the Contribution Guidelines and this is not a support question.
• [*] I confirm that this bug is a bug in PHP_CodeSniffer and not in one of the external standards.
• [*] I have verified the issue still exists in the 4.x branch of PHP_CodeSniffer.

[jrfnl]

@JohnnyWalkerDigital Thanks for doing your own research before posting. However, this is not a bug.

However the regex pattern /.*.js/ still does not match app/Services/JsonLdProcessingService.php so what is going on?

Actually it does match, as the file matching is done in a case-insensitive manner. Once you add the i flag, you can see that the regex matches the filename.

https://regex101.com/?regex=.*.js&testString=app%2FServices%2FJsonLdProcessingService.php&flags=gmi&flavor=pcre2&delimiter=%7E

Looking at the Wiki, I think the docs can be improved by mentioning the case-insensitivity. Would you like to submit a PR for that ?