Re: Why does git track directory listed in .gitignore/".git/info/exclude"?

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jan 30, 2008, 20:39 UTC
Message-ID: <7vprvjgi9v.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <47A06EF9.60704@users.sourceforge.net>

Adam Piatyszek <ediap@users.sourceforge.net> writes:

Show 16 quoted lines

> In my opinion, the exclude matching routine should convert "dir/" to
> "dir", especially that the "git status" command lists untracked
> directories with the trailing slash "/", e.g:
>
>   ediap@lespaul ~/git/acm_ofdm $ git status
>   # On branch master
>   # Untracked files:
>   #   (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
>   #
>   #       ldpc13.bm
>   #       results/
>
> So, most newbies will try to add "dir/" to .gitignore or
> .git/info/exclude instead of "dir" in such a case.
>
> Can you seen any drawbacks of such modification?

I do not see a problem if you are saying:

	when the user has an entry 'dir/' in .gitignore, it
	should match directory 'dir'.

However, there is a subtle problem in a naive implementation of that. IOW,

	when the user has an entry 'dir/' in .gitignore, behave
	as if the entry were 'dir' instead.

is wrong.

When you say "foo", you mean "I want either 'foo' that is a non-directory, or everything under 'foo' if that is a directory". When you say "foo/", you are saying "I do not want 'foo' if it is a non-directory. I want everything under 'foo' if and only if that is a directory". Compare:

	git ls-files -s Makefile/
        git ls-files -s Makefile

The first one is silent, and the latter answers. On the other hand, for a directory, both of these give you the same:

	git ls-files Documentation/
        git ls-files Documentation