Re: [PATCH] Document escaping of special characters in gitignore files

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jan 5, 2011, 18:42 UTC
Message-ID: <7vwrmjchuu.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <1294234732-20094-1-git-send-email-jnareb@gmail.com>

Jakub Narebski <jnareb@gmail.com> writes:

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> This patch was originally send 10 Sep 2010, but I guess it was lost
> because it appeared only deep in thread inside response, and not as
> well separated patch.  I have found about it when I got conflict
> merging current code.
>
> It applies on top of current 'master'.

Thanks.  A few questions before applying.

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> diff --git a/Documentation/gitignore.txt b/Documentation/gitignore.txt
> index 7dc2e8b..20abc20 100644
> --- a/Documentation/gitignore.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/gitignore.txt
> @@ -68,6 +68,7 @@ Patterns have the following format:
>     for readability.
>  
>   - A line starting with # serves as a comment.
> +   Use `\#` for a literal # character starting filename.

Is a literal bs safe here? You later use "{backslash}#" in this same file, and it might make sense to do so here for the sake of source readability, even if a literal bs is safe here---provided that "{backslash}#" does not break here, of course.

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> @@ -98,6 +99,12 @@ Patterns have the following format:
> ...
> + - You can escape special characters using backslash.
> +   For example, "{backslash}#*" matches files beginning in `#`
> ...

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> diff --git a/templates/info--exclude b/templates/info--exclude
> index a5196d1..2ebaf0d 100644
> --- a/templates/info--exclude
> +++ b/templates/info--exclude
> @@ -4,3 +4,4 @@
>  # exclude patterns (uncomment them if you want to use them):
>  # *.[oa]
>  # *~
> +# \#*#

Do we need this? Without explanation it is somewhat hard to realize that this last line is also an example of a pattern that excludes any filename that begins and ends with a pound.