Re: [BUG] ** glob pattern in git diff doesn't match root directory

> On 4/26/21, 1:23 AM, "=?utf-8?B?w4Z2YXIgQXJuZmrDtnLDsA==?= Bjarmason" <avarab@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 24 2021, Shoaib Meenai wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> When I use a `**/` glob pattern with `git diff`, it doesn't seem to
>> match in the root directory. The documentation for gitgnore says that a
>> leading `**/` should match in all directories, and I would expect it to
>> behave the same way for `git diff`. For example:
>>
>> $ git --version
>> git version 2.31.1.527.g47e6f16901 # built from the `next` branch
>> $ mkdir /tmp/globtest && cd /tmp/globtest
>> $ git init
>> $ echo foo > foo
>> $ mkdir sub
>> $ echo subfoo > sub/foo
>> $ git add .
>> $ git commit -m 'Initial commit'
>> $ echo bar > foo
>> $ echo subbar > sub/foo
>> $ git --no-pager diff '**/foo'
>> diff --git a/sub/foo b/sub/foo
>> index ef7889f..2b2ab6c 100644
>> --- a/sub/foo
>> +++ b/sub/foo
>> @@ -1 +1 @@
>> -subfoo
>> +subbar
>>
>> Only the diff to `sub/foo` is printed, whereas I'd expect the change to
>> the top-level `foo` to be printed as well. `git diff '**foo'` does behave
>> as I would expect. This also happens with a `**` in the middle of a
>> pattern; e.g., `sub/**/bar` will match `sub/dir/bar` but not `sub/bar`.
>>
>> Am I misunderstanding how `**` should work, or is this a bug?
>
> It's not a bug in behavior, but reading the documentation I think it's
> buggy in describing how it works.
>
> The behavior of ** here is to match anything, including a slash, but you
> yourself are providing the slash with "**/".
>
> This behavior is different under :(glob) where we would match "foo" on
> the top-level.
>
> See t/t3070-wildmatch.sh, is particular the "**/foo" test-case.
>
> We adopted this code from rsync originally, I think its manual page is
> better at describing how it works, as an aside I see they've since added
> a "***" which we won't have, and maybe some other features.