diff --git a/mypy/config_parser.py b/mypy/config_parser.py
--- a/mypy/config_parser.py
+++ b/mypy/config_parser.py
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ def check_follow_imports(choice: str) -> str:
     'cache_dir': expand_path,
     'python_executable': expand_path,
     'strict': bool,
-    'exclude': lambda s: [p.strip() for p in s.split('\n') if p.strip()],
+    'exclude': lambda s: [s.strip()],
 }
 
 # Reuse the ini_config_types and overwrite the diff

diff --git a/test-data/unit/cmdline.test b/test-data/unit/cmdline.test
--- a/test-data/unit/cmdline.test
+++ b/test-data/unit/cmdline.test
@@ -1354,9 +1354,10 @@ b/bpkg.py:1: error: "int" not callable
 # cmd: mypy .
 [file mypy.ini]
 \[mypy]
-exclude =
-    abc
-    b
+exclude = (?x)(
+    ^abc/
+    |^b/
+  )
 [file abc/apkg.py]
 1()
 [file b/bpkg.py]

handling of `exclude` configuration changed in an incompatible way in 0.930
https://github.com/python/mypy/issues/11825 seems related but slightly different as that one causes a crash -- I believe this was broken in https://github.com/python/mypy/pull/11329

**Bug Report**

for example: (this is reduced from a larger example just to demonstrate a minimal example)

```ini
# mypy.ini
[mypy]
exclude=(?x)
    ^(
        setup\.py$
    )
```


**To Reproduce**

set up a configuration above and run mypy

**Expected Behavior**

in mypy 0.920 this excluded all `setup.py` files

**Actual Behavior**

this appears to exclude *all* files:

```console
$ mypy .
There are no .py[i] files in directory '.'
```

**Your Environment**

<!-- Include as many relevant details about the environment you experienced the bug in -->

- Mypy version used: 0.930
- Mypy command-line flags: (see above)
- Mypy configuration options from `mypy.ini` (and other config files): (see above)
- Python version used: 3.8.10
- Operating system and version: ubuntu 20.04

<!--
You can freely edit this text, please remove all the lines
you believe are unnecessary.
-->


cc @nipunn1313 something like #11828 should work for pyproject.toml, but curious for your opinion on what this should look like going forward for ini files
Great question.

I think the safest option is to maintain the old behavior on `.ini` files - such that you cannot provide multiple `--exclude` inside `ini` files. `ini` files don't have support for array structures so this seems ok.

There is a simple workaround to get access to the new feature - using pyproject.toml instead of mypy.ini.
I can try to augment #11828 (or provide a PR that depends on it) to restore the old `.ini` behavior. Would that work?
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