From: Junio C Hamano Date: Tue, 03 Nov 2026 22:40:32 GMT Subject: [PATCH v2] gitignore: rewrite wildcard description Message-ID: In-Reply-To: The documentation for '.gitignore' makes reference to fnmatch(3) and FNM_PATHNAME to describe how an asterisk "*" and a question mark "?" behave. Even though it spells out that these wildcard characters do not match a slash, it does not say if an asterisk matches an empty string (it does). Rewrite the section so that the readers would get a more complete picture without requiring them to know what fnmatch(3) and glob(7) says. Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano --- * let's adopt the most explicit "(including the empty string)" from glob(7). Documentation/gitignore.adoc | 15 ++++++++++----- 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) diff --git a/Documentation/gitignore.adoc b/Documentation/gitignore.adoc index 7979e50f18..87f37c2b0c 100644 --- a/Documentation/gitignore.adoc +++ b/Documentation/gitignore.adoc @@ -110,11 +110,16 @@ PATTERN FORMAT and `a/frotz` that is a directory (all paths are relative from the `.gitignore` file). - - An asterisk "`*`" matches anything except a slash. - The character "`?`" matches any one character except "`/`". - The range notation, e.g. `[a-zA-Z]`, can be used to match - one of the characters in a range. See fnmatch(3) and the - FNM_PATHNAME flag for a more detailed description. + - An asterisk "`*`" matches any string (including the empty string), + and a question mark "`?`" matches any single character, but these + wildcard characters do not match a slash "`/`". + + - A pair of brackets that enclose characters match one of the listed + characters, and a range notation inside them, e.g., "`[a-zA-Z]`", + would behave as if all the characters in the range were listed there + instead. Wildcard characters "`*`" and "`?`" lose their special + meaning inside a pair of brackets, e.g., "`[*]`" would match an + asterisk and nothing else. - A backslash ("`\`") can be used to escape any character. E.g., "`\*`" matches a literal asterisk (and "`\a`" matches "`a`", even though Interdiff: diff --git a/Documentation/gitignore.adoc b/Documentation/gitignore.adoc index 671a5a4c99..87f37c2b0c 100644 --- a/Documentation/gitignore.adoc +++ b/Documentation/gitignore.adoc @@ -110,9 +110,9 @@ PATTERN FORMAT and `a/frotz` that is a directory (all paths are relative from the `.gitignore` file). - - An asterisk "`*`" matches string of any length, and a question mark - "`?`" matches any single character, but these wildcard characters - do not match a slash "`/`". + - An asterisk "`*`" matches any string (including the empty string), + and a question mark "`?`" matches any single character, but these + wildcard characters do not match a slash "`/`". - A pair of brackets that enclose characters match one of the listed characters, and a range notation inside them, e.g., "`[a-zA-Z]`", -- 2.56.0-511-g14903f623d