Re: [RFC PATCH] Introduce "precious" file concept

> The users who need protection against git deleting their files the most
> are exactly the sort of users who aren't expert-level enough to
> understand the nuances of how the semantics of .gitignore and "precious"
> are going to interact before git eats their data.
>
> This is pretty apparent from the bug reports we're getting about
> this. None of them are:
>
>     "Hey, I 100% understood .gitignore semantics including this one part
>     of the docs where you say you'll do this, but just forgot one day
>     and deleted my work. Can we get some more safety?"
>
> But rather (with some hyperbole for effect):
>
>     "ZOMG git deleted my file! Is this a bug??"
>
> So I think we should have the inverse of this "precious"
> attribute". Just a change to the docs to say that .gitignore doesn't
> imply these eager deletion semantics on tree unpacking anymore, and if
> users want it back they can define a "garbage" attribute
> (s/precious/garbage/).
>
> That will lose no data, and in the very rare cases where a checkout of
> tracked files would overwrite an ignored pattern, we can just error out
> (as we do with the "Ok to overwrite" branch removed) and tell the user
> to delete the files to proceed.