From: Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2010 18:59:43 GMT
Subject: Re: How do I .gitignore files starting with "#"?
Message-ID: <AANLkTimw5pzdGjiPps-CE1PJS1sBXYw3dE4vhdwm1CYP@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <m38w39mnyd.fsf@localhost.localdomain>

On Fri, Sep 10, 2010 at 18:52, Jakub Narebski <jnareb@gmail.com> wrote:
> Bruce Korb <bruce.korb@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> After trying lots of variations, I found it to be:
>>
>> \#*
>>
>> Not obvious and not easy to look up.  Please add it to your
>> .git/info/exclude sample text.  Thanks!
>
> Well, it is quite obvious to me, as escaping special characters using
> backslash is typical in Unix tools.  But you are right that this needs
> to be documented.
>
> Perhaps something like this?  I am not sure about example in
> .git/info/exclude skeleton
>
> -- >8 --
> Subject: [PATCH] Document escaping of special characters in gitignore files
>
> Requested-by: Bruce Korb <bruce.korb@gmail.com>
> Signed-off-by: Jakub Narebski <jnareb@gmail.com>
> ---
>  Documentation/gitignore.txt |    6 ++++++
>  templates/info--exclude     |    1 +
>  2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/Documentation/gitignore.txt b/Documentation/gitignore.txt
> index 7dc2e8b..67ae4d0 100644
> --- a/Documentation/gitignore.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/gitignore.txt
> @@ -98,6 +98,12 @@ Patterns have the following format:
>    For example, "/{asterisk}.c" matches "cat-file.c" but not
>    "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c".
>
> + - You can escape special characters using backslash.
> +   For example, "{backslash}#*" matches files beginning in `#`
> +   (otherwise it would be considered comment),
> +   and "{backslash}!*{backslash}?" matches files starting with `!`
> +   (negate pattern prefix) and ending with `?` (glob wildcard).
> +

Maybe fix this too in the same manpage:

    A line starting with # serves as a comment.

To:

    A line starting with # serves as a comment. Use \# for a literal #
character. See ...