From: Pushkar Singh <pushkarkumarsingh1970@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2026 18:51:02 GMT
Subject: Re: .gitignore issue
Message-ID: <SL2P216MB1885CE309BDBA65860D8762FA296A@SL2P216MB1885.KORP216.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM>

Hi Alf,

This is expected behavior.
When a directory matches an ignore rule, Git stops descending into it entirely. The pattern

        backup_STOCKS*/

matches directories starting with backup_STOCKS, and once Git prunes traversal at that level, similarly prefixed paths can disappear from git status, which is why backups/ no longer shows up.

This isn’t a bug, but a result of how ignore patterns and directory pruning work.

If you want to ignore only those directories and nothing else, anchoring the pattern helps:

        /backup_STOCKS_*/

You can also verify which rule is responsible with:

        git check-ignore -v backups/

Hope that clears it up.

Best,
Pushkar