[PATCHv3 1/2] Documentation: clarify fnmatch behavior in gitignore

From: Eric Blake <eblake@redhat.com>
Date: Apr 5, 2011, 22:17 UTC
Message-ID: <1302041878-24426-1-git-send-email-eblake@redhat.com>

Make it clear that in a .gitignore file,

  *ignore

matches (and therefore excludes) `.gitignore', even though the same glob does not match in the shell.

Signed-off-by: Eric Blake <eblake@redhat.com>
---

v3: separate fnmatch wording cleanup into its own patch

 Documentation/gitignore.txt |    7 ++++---
 1 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/gitignore.txt b/Documentation/gitignore.txt
index 2e7328b..9b1e5e1 100644
--- a/Documentation/gitignore.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gitignore.txt
@@ -86,9 +86,10 @@ PATTERN FORMAT
    `.gitignore` file).

  - Otherwise, git treats the pattern as a shell glob suitable
-   for consumption by fnmatch(3) with the FNM_PATHNAME flag:
-   wildcards in the pattern will not match a / in the pathname.
-   For example, "Documentation/{asterisk}.html" matches
+   for consumption by fnmatch(3) with the FNM_PATHNAME but not
+   FNM_PERIOD flags: wildcards in the pattern will match leading
+   . but not / in pathnames.  For example,
+   "Documentation/{asterisk}.html" matches "Documentation/.html" and
    "Documentation/git.html" but not "Documentation/ppc/ppc.html"
    or "tools/perf/Documentation/perf.html".

-- 
1.7.4