more pedantry ... what means a file "known to Git"?

  apologies for more excruciating nitpickery, but i ask since it seems
that phrase means slightly different things depending on where you
read it.

  first, i assume that there are only two categories:

  1) files known to Git
  2) files unknown to Git

and that there is no fuzzy, grey area middle ground, yes?

  now, in "man git-clean", one reads (near the top):

    Cleans the working tree by recursively removing files that are
    not under version control, starting from the current directory.

    Normally, only files unknown to Git are removed, but if the -x
              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    option is specified, ignored files are also removed.

the way that's worded suggests that ignored files are "known" to Git, yes? that is, if, by default, "git clean" removes only files "unknown" to Git, and "-x" extends that to ignored files, the conclusion is that ignored files are *known* to Git.

  if, however, you check out "man git-rm", you read:

    The <file> list given to the command can be exact pathnames,
    file glob patterns, or leading directory names. The command
    removes only the paths that are known to Git. Giving the name
                                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^
    of a file that you have not told Git about does not remove that file.

so "git rm" removes only files "known to Git", but from the above regarding how "git clean" sees this, that should include ignored files, which of course it doesn't.

  given that this phrase occurs in a number of places:

$ grep -ir "known to git" * builtin/difftool.c: /* The symlink is unknown to Git so read from the filesystem */ dir.c: error("pathspec '%s' did not match any file(s) known to git.", Documentation/git-rm.txt:removes only the paths that are known to Git. Giving the name of Documentation/git-commit.txt: be known to Git); Documentation/user-manual.txt:error: pathspec '261dfac35cb99d380eb966e102c1197139f7fa24' did not match any file(s) known to git. Documentation/gitattributes.txt: Notice all types of potential whitespace errors known to Git. Documentation/git-clean.txt:Normally, only files unknown to Git are removed, but if the `-x` Documentation/RelNotes/1.8.2.1.txt: * The code to keep track of what directory names are known to Git on Documentation/RelNotes/1.8.1.6.txt: * The code to keep track of what directory names are known to Git on Documentation/RelNotes/2.9.0.txt: known to Git. They have been taught to do the normalization. Documentation/RelNotes/2.8.4.txt: known to Git. They have been taught to do the normalization. Documentation/RelNotes/1.8.3.txt: * The code to keep track of what directory names are known to Git on t/t3005-ls-files-relative.sh: echo "error: pathspec $sq$f$sq did not match any file(s) known to git." t/t3005-ls-files-relative.sh: echo "error: pathspec $sq$f$sq did not match any file(s) known to git." $

it might be useful to define precisely what it means. or is it assumed to be context dependent?

rday