Re: [PATCH (resend)] Let core.excludesfile default to ~/.gitexcludes.

From: Michael J Gruber <git@drmicha.warpmail.net>
Date: Nov 26, 2009, 12:00 UTC
Message-ID: <4B0E6DC9.3070105@drmicha.warpmail.net>
In-Reply-To: <1259231726-5218-1-git-send-email-Matthieu.Moy@imag.fr>

Matthieu Moy venit, vidit, dixit 26.11.2009 11:35:

> Most users will set it to ~/.gitsomething. ~/.gitignore would conflict
> with per-directory ignore file if ~/ is managed by Git, so ~/.gitexcludes
> is a sane default.

I'm sorry to jump in so late, and this may sound like bike-shedding, but right now we have

.git/info/exclude .gitignore

and this would add

~/.gitexcludes

That is, three terms, or two, where one comes in two variations (exclude/exludes). I always wondered why we have two.

The reason for .gitignore is most probably the similarity to .${othervcs}ignore, and that is a valid reason.

I know we have ~/.gitconfig for the global version of .git/config, and maybe that was just no good idea either. But I don't even dare suggesting to rename it ~/.gitglobalconfig.

So, in line at least with our term "global" (per user) config, I would suggest to use "~/.gitglobalignore" for the global ignore file. Maybe, eventually, we'll manage to rename .git/info/excludes to .git/info/ignore.

On a somewhat larger scale, a good alternative strategy would be to have a directory "~/.gitglobal/" in which Git would look for ~/.gitglobal/config and ~/.gitglobal/info/ignore or ~/.gitglobal/ignore

i.e. mirroring the repo structure or at least bundling everything in a single dir, which would also be a good place for a global svnauthors file and such, and for other global configuration files we don't think of right now.

Michael