Re: [RFC/PATCH] git-add: Don't exclude explicitly-specified tracked files

From: Matthieu Moy <matthieu.moy@grenoble-inp.fr>
Date: Aug 12, 2010, 16:31 UTC
Message-ID: <vpq39ujg5da.fsf@bauges.imag.fr>
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTimODL6j11D6QuUX4b47GwFOVOXdqkhqrRfRaxmq@mail.gmail.com>

Greg Brockman <gdb@MIT.EDU> writes:

>>> This commit changes 'git add' to disregard excludes for tracked files
>>> whose paths are explicitly specified on the command-line.
>>
>> I don't think you need this to solve the problem,

This remains (see below) ...

>> and as Junio said, that would make "git add dir/*" add all the
>> ignored files, which would make -f essentially useless.

... but this is actually wrong, yes. Your commit message states

| This commit changes 'git add' to disregard excludes for tracked
| files whose paths are explicitly specified on the command-line.

I had missed the "tracked files whose ..." part, and focused on the "path is explicitely specified on the command-line".

And actually, all you need is to see whether the file is tracked or not, and not whether it's been given from the command-line. With your patch, I get:

$ git init git Initialized empty Git repository in /tmp/git/.git/ $ cd git $ mkdir dir $ touch dir/file $ echo dir > .gitignore $ git add -f dir/file $ echo content >> dir/file $ git add dir/file $ git add dir/f* # <--- shell globing

Up to now, everything OK. But:

$ git add dir/f\* # <--- Git globing. The following paths are ignored by one of your .gitignore files: dir Use -f if you really want to add them. fatal: no files added

I think Git should not apply any .gitignore rule to already-tracked files, whether they are given from the command-line explicitely or through globbing.

One case which can be discussed:

$ git add dir The following paths are ignored by one of your .gitignore files: dir Use -f if you really want to add them. fatal: no files added

I don't think I should need a -f flag here either, since dir/ contains only tracked files. But I don't care much here.

Show 6 quoted lines

> Incidentally, I noticed that 'git add dir/file' for ignored dir worked
> fine in an older version of git.  'git bisect' reveals that the
> behavior I would like to change was introduced in 29209cb.  From the
> commit message, I get the sense that this particular behavior was not
> actually intentional (someone please correct me if I'm missing
> something).

My understanding is that the goal was to reject the first "git add subdir/file", but not subsequent ones.

I'd suggest that you write a first patch introducing new tests, possibly marked as test_expect_failure, so that people can at least agree on the desired behavior, and then an implementation could follow.

-- 
Matthieu Moy
http://www-verimag.imag.fr/~moy/