[RFC/PATCH] git-add: Don't exclude explicitly-specified tracked files

From: Greg Brockman <gdb@mit.edu>
Date: Aug 11, 2010, 07:03 UTC
Message-ID: <1281510236-8103-1-git-send-email-gdb@mit.edu>

Currently, 'git add' will complain about excluded files, even if they are already tracked:

$ mkdir dir && touch dir/file && cat > .gitignore <<< dir
$ git add -f dir/file
$ git status
  ...
  new file:   dir/file
  ...
$ git add dir/file
The following paths are ignored by one of your .gitignore files:
dir
Use -f if you really want to add them.
fatal: no files added

This commit changes 'git add' to disregard excludes for tracked files whose paths are explicitly specified on the command-line. So in the above example, 'git add dir/file' no longer requires a '-f'. However, 'git add dir' does.

Signed-off-by: Greg Brockman <gdb@mit.edu>
---
 builtin/add.c |   19 +++++++++++++++++++
 1 files changed, 19 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

What do people think of this behavior? My motivation in writing this patch is that I sometimes track files in an ignored directory, and it can be cumbersome to remember to pass '-f' when adding them. Related commands such as 'git add -p' and 'git commit -a' do not require a '-f' in this case, so it feels natural to me not to require extra user confirmation when an explicit path has been provided.

As always, thanks in advance for your comments.

diff --git a/builtin/add.c b/builtin/add.c
index 56a4e0a..46b1fdb 100644
--- a/builtin/add.c
+++ b/builtin/add.c
@@ -423,8 +423,27 @@ int cmd_add(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 		/* Set up the default git porcelain excludes */
 		memset(&dir, 0, sizeof(dir));
 		if (!ignored_too) {
+			const char **tracked = xmalloc(sizeof(char *) * (argc + 1));
+			const char **p;
+			int tidx = 0;
+			int pidx = 0;
+
 			dir.flags |= DIR_COLLECT_IGNORED;
 			setup_standard_excludes(&dir);
+
+			for (p = pathspec; *p; p++) {
+				if ((*p)[0] && cache_name_exists(*p, strlen(*p), 0))
+					tracked[tidx++] = *p;
+				else
+					pathspec[pidx++] = *p;
+			}
+
+			tracked[tidx] = NULL;
+			pathspec[pidx] = NULL;
+			exit_status |= add_files_to_cache(prefix, tracked, flags);
+			/* All files were tracked */
+			if (pidx == 0)
+				goto finish;
 		}
 
 		/* This picks up the paths that are not tracked */

-- 
1.7.0.4