Re: [PATCH v2 1/1] git-clean.txt: clarify ignore pattern files

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Mar 7, 2019, 06:56 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqlg1rmati.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>
In-Reply-To: <2eda83517ebad39e14dca9d86b9dc2e0d32e37ef.1551938421.git.liu.denton@gmail.com>

Denton Liu <liu.denton@gmail.com> writes:

Show 16 quoted lines

>  -e <pattern>::
>  --exclude=<pattern>::
> -	In addition to those found in .gitignore (per directory) and
> -	$GIT_DIR/info/exclude, also consider these patterns to be in the
> -	set of the ignore rules in effect.
> +	Use the exclude pattern in addition to those found in
> +	`.gitignore` and similar files (see linkgit:gitignore[5]).
>  
>  -x::
> -	Don't use the standard ignore rules read from .gitignore (per
> -	directory) and $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, but do still use the ignore
> +	Don't use the standard ignore rules read from `.gitignore` and
> +	similar files (see linkgit:gitignore[5]), but do still use the ignore
>  	rules given with `-e` options.  This allows removing all untracked
>  	files, including build products.  This can be used (possibly in
>  	conjunction with 'git reset') to create a pristine

I do agree with the direction to abandon the attempt to be exhaustive, which has failed us and will fail. I am not sure if ".gitignore and similar files" is a good phrasing, though.

    Don't use the standard ignored rules (see linkgit:gitignore[5]),
    but use the ignore rules given with `-e` options from the
    command line.

perhaps?  I dunno.

A related tangent.

"git add --help" also has this bit.

    CONFIGURATION
    -------------

    The optional configuration variable `core.excludesFile` indicates a path to a
    file containing patterns of file names to exclude from git-add, similar to
    $GIT_DIR/info/exclude.  Patterns in the exclude file are used in addition to
    those in info/exclude.  See linkgit:gitignore[5].

I do not think the omission of per-directory .gitignore from this description is because the description predates the feature (which is the reason why "git clean" doc does not mention, by the way), but this probably needs a simliar treatment.

Or perhaps this configuration section should just be removed (or moved to gitignore(5)), as it is not specific to "git add".