Re: [RFC/PATCH] git-add: Don't exclude explicitly-specified tracked files

From: Greg Brockman <gdb@mit.edu>
Date: Aug 12, 2010, 02:11 UTC
Message-ID: <AANLkTimg8_YAVR0ncz71Mr1+b8Q9kL9oxjjYEOpqFMoK@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <4C630D23.5090001@web.de>

Show 21 quoted lines

> Are we talking about two different issues here?
>
> Am 11.08.2010 14:24, schrieb Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason:
>> On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 07:03, Greg Brockman <gdb@mit.edu> wrote:
>>> Currently, 'git add' will complain about excluded files, even if they
>>> are already tracked:
>
> I'm all for not complaining when adding an ignored file that is
> already tracked, as the user already told us he wants to track
> this file despite .gitignore.
>
>>> ... so it feels natural to me not
>>> to require extra user confirmation when an explicit path has been provided.
>>
>> I like it. I keep a /etc in git with .gitignore "*". This would help a
>> lot for use cases like that. Explicitly specifying a full path should
>> override gitignore IMO.
>
> I'm not so sure if we should silently add ignored files just because
> they appear on the command line. For me having to force the first time
> I do a "git add" for an otherwise ignored file looks like a feature.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I read Ævar's use to be exactly the one I described. In particular, he presumably has a few interesting files in /etc that he tracks but wants to ignore the rest. So as far as I can tell we are all talking about the same issue.

To be clear, I certainly agree that having to force the first time you run 'git add' is a feature, and my patch explicitly does not change this functionality.

Anyway, modulo further discussion, I will add some tests and send the revised version to the list. Thanks all for looking this over.