Re: Untracked files cache not used when --untracked-files is used

From: Matthew Hughes <matthewhughes934@gmail.com>
Date: Oct 5, 2025, 00:20 UTC
Message-ID: <lrahpvp3nj4rtewf3zbf67qsvwhc4mg6irbmrhklbizxbhqwom@cc25oeqex4il>
In-Reply-To: <CANM0SV3+4k5tsgRw0g8-HoVSFGb1AwZr+2hCUXLriFGSd33WQQ@mail.gmail.com>

Devste Devste wrote:

Show 5 quoted lines

> It seems that using --untracked-files(=all) causes it to either not
> use the untracked files cache (or untracked files are not stored in
> the untracked files cache if they are in an untracked directory?)
> Since various tools and IDEs use that hardcoded, fixing this would be
> a massive performance boost for many users

What's the value of your `status.showUntrackedFiles` config var? I ask because I looked around a bit and found commit e6a653554bb49c26d105f3b478cbdbb1c0648f65 (untracked-cache: support '--untracked-files=all' if configured), which includes:

> For most users there will be no change in behavior. Users who need
> '--untracked-files=all' to perform well will now have the option of
> setting "status.showuntrackedfiles" to "all" for better / more
> consistent performance.

Testing this out on a big repo (on my Linux machine):

    $ git init .
    # create ~100_000 files with plenty of directories
    $ for i in {1..10000}; do echo dir_$i/{1,2,3,4}/nested_{1,2}; done | xargs mkdir -p
    $ for i in {1..10000}; do echo dir_$i/{foo,bar,baz}/file.txt; done | xargs touch
    $ git add .

As expected, status with untracked files and no untracked cache is rather slow:

    $ time GIT_CONFIG_GLOBAL=/dev/null git status --untracked-files=all >/dev/null

    real	0m1.237s
    user	0m0.484s
    sys	0m1.150s

Status with untracked files and `core.untrackedCache=true` is just as slow:

    $ time GIT_CONFIG_GLOBAL=/dev/null git -c 'core.untrackedCache=true' status --untracked-files=all >/dev/null

    real	0m1.250s
    user	0m0.435s
    sys	0m1.216s

However, with `status.untrackedFiles=all` (i.e. matching the `--untracked-files` flag) it's much quicker:

    $ time GIT_CONFIG_GLOBAL=/dev/null git -c 'core.untrackedCache=true' -c 'status.showUntrackedFiles=all' status --untracked-files=all >/dev/null

    real	0m0.382s
    user	0m0.214s
    sys	0m0.568s