Re: Feat. req.: add a flag to `git clean` to also remove ignored nested repositories

From: brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>
Date: Jan 9, 2026, 13:18 UTC
Message-ID: <aWEAHQLzwTxCpD5Q@fruit.crustytoothpaste.net>
In-Reply-To: <CA+itcS3-RQ=ESqcWj0Pkw=N4e4gwaz2fp2xH2M1MPXQXaMDmCw@mail.gmail.com>

On 2026-01-09 at 03:50:30, Simon Cheng wrote:

Show 16 quoted lines

> Currently, running `git clean -dxf` on a repository that includes
> another repository under an ignored path would skip said repository:
> 
> $ git clean -dxf
> Removing foo
> Skipping repository ignored-path/repo
> Removing bar
> 
> This is to request the addition of a new flag to allow altering this
> behaviour, i.e. to make `git clean` remove those repositories too.
> 
> For me, this feature is relevant for building `*-git` packages from
> the AUR, for example https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/paru-git. By
> default `makepkg` would clone the source repo into `./src/NAME`, which
> creates the aforementioned condition. Without such an option on `git
> clean`, cleanup after build is rather complicated.

Does this work if you use `git clean -dxff` (that is, with a second `-f` flag)? I do often clean up ignored repositories that way (and it's documented to do that in the manual page), but I'm not sure if you're maybe doing something a little different from my workflow.

If that _doesn't_ work for you, would you mind creating a quick shell script to demonstrate the problem that you're seeing so that we could provide better advice?

-- 
brian m. carlson (they/them)
Toronto, Ontario, CA