Re: How do I qualify paths in the .gitignore file w.r.t. the repo root directory?

>
> Brent Goodrick <bgoodr@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > Say I have these files and directories [2]:
> >
> >   /home/smart_tator/misc_files/.gitignore
> >   /home/smart_tator/misc_files/foo/
> >   /home/smart_tator/misc_files/bar/
> >   /home/smart_tator/misc_files/bar/baz/foo/
> >   /home/smart_tator/misc_files/bar/baz/real/
> >
> > then I do:
> >
> >   cd /home/smart_tator/misc_files/; git init
> >
> > and say I have this line in that .gitignore file:
> >
> >   foo/
> >
> > And then I naively execute:
> >
> >   git add bar/
> >
> > then the bar/baz/real/ is added, but these are dutifully ignored:
> >
> >   /home/smart_tator/misc_files/foo/
> >   /home/smart_tator/misc_files/bar/baz/foo/
>
> I think you are looking for "/foo/".  From Documentation/gitignore.txt:
>
>  - If the pattern ends with a slash, it is removed for the
>   purpose of the following description, but it would only find
>   a match with a directory.  In other words, `foo/` will match a
>   directory `foo` and paths underneath it, but will not match a
>   regular file or a symbolic link `foo` (this is consistent
>   with the way how pathspec works in general in git).
>
> With this rule, (1) the trailing slash in your "foo/" tells git to match
> only with directories, but (2) it behaves as if you said "foo" for all the
> other rules.
>
> With "/foo/", you tell git to match only with a directory, and it is as if
> you said "/foo".
>
>  - If the pattern does not contain a slash '/', git treats it as
>   a shell glob pattern and checks for a match against the
>   pathname without leading directories.
>
> Your "foo/" now behaves the same way as "foo" behaves.  You are telling
> git to match directory foo anywhere in the tree.  "/foo/" (now behaving
> the same way as "/foo") does not satisfy this criteria so we would skip
> this rule.
>
>  - Otherwise, git treats the pattern as a shell glob suitable
>   for consumption by fnmatch(3) with the FNM_PATHNAME flag:
>   wildcards in the pattern will not match a / in the pathname.
>   For example, "Documentation/\*.html" matches
>   "Documentation/git.html" but not
>   "Documentation/ppc/ppc.html".  A leading slash matches the
>   beginning of the pathname; for example, "/*.c" matches
>   "cat-file.c" but not "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c".
>
> Your "foo/" does not survive to this rule, but "/foo/" does.  It now
> behaves as "/foo" and its leading slash makes it match the beginning.