[PATCH 3/3] sparse-index: point users to new 'clean' action

From: Derrick Stolee via GitGitGadget <gitgitgadget@gmail.com>
Date: Jul 8, 2025, 11:19 UTC
Message-ID: <80d7a7641daa7a6f0e1db73e0a433701e9f37209.1751973594.git.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <pull.1941.git.1751973594.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>

From: Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com>

In my experience, the most-common reason that the sparse index must expand to a full one is because there is some leftover file in a tracked directory that is now outside of the sparse-checkout. The new 'git sparse-checkout clean' command will find and delete these directories, so point users to it when they hit the sparse index expansion advice.

Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com>
---
 sparse-index.c | 3 ++-
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/sparse-index.c b/sparse-index.c
index 5634abafaa07..5d14795063b5 100644
--- a/sparse-index.c
+++ b/sparse-index.c
@@ -32,7 +32,8 @@ int give_advice_on_expansion = 1;
 	"Your working directory likely has contents that are outside of\n"     \
 	"your sparse-checkout patterns. Use 'git sparse-checkout list' to\n"   \
 	"see your sparse-checkout definition and compare it to your working\n" \
-	"directory contents. Running 'git clean' may assist in this cleanup."
+	"directory contents. Running 'git sparse-checkout clean' may assist\n" \
+	"in this cleanup."
 
 struct modify_index_context {
 	struct index_state *write;

-- 
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