Re: git-grep ignores untracked files

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Feb 15, 2010, 01:45 UTC
Message-ID: <7vvddz5l1z.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <1266194137-25653-1-git-send-email-lodatom@gmail.com>

Show 5 quoted lines

>  Look for specified patterns in the working tree files, blobs
> -registered in the index file, or given tree objects.
> +registered in the index file, or given tree objects.  Only tracked files in
> +the working tree are searched.  Paths that do not match are silently ignored,
> +including paths to untracked files.

Strictly speaking, because git commands are about tracked files unless explicitly stated otherwise, the phrase "files in the work tree" already means "tracked" ones. It is understandable (but not excusable) that people who wrote manual assumed the readers would have learned that from the user manual without repeating. Adding explicit description would be a good thing to do.

I think rewording the paragraph to "... patterns in the tracked files in the work tree, blobs registered in the index file, ... or given tree objects." would be a good balance to strike. It gives enough information without making it too verbose.

I doubt we want to have "Only tracked files blah blah". Like all the normal git commands, "grep" is about tracked contents, and I don't think it would help to repeat the obvious like pathspec filter will act as a filter. "add <pathspec>" is an exception in that it _is_ about untracked paths and that is why you get warnings for unmatched ones.

    Side note: there will be --no-index option to let you run "git grep"
    over files in a random directory.

> +<path>...::
> +	Only search files matching these wildcard patterns; see glob(7) for
> +	the format.  If not given, all tracked files in the tree are searched.

Please do *not* "see glob(7) for the format". Pathspec used for "grep" (and "ls-files") are "leading path match or glob(7)". E.g. "git grep frotz t/" looks for frotz in all files under "t/" recursively, and that does not have much to do with glob(7). If we do not have a description already, we may want to add these basics to git(1) or the user manual.

Thanks.