Re: Bug with .gitignore and branch switching

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Mar 17, 2017, 21:23 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqmvcj61j2.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAPUVn2u0Uos2mT5+4ejj8m0okNK6XwerL6ce2miHfhtuEs-ZnQ@mail.gmail.com>

Nevada Sanchez <sanchez.nevada@gmail.com> writes:

> Here's an easy to reproduce bug. It's the only example I know of where
> git legitimately loses data in a way that is unrecoverable,
> unexpected, and without warning.

This is an example of a user explicitly telling git to discard data and git performing as it is told.

There is no "untracked but precious" vs "untracked and expendable" difference in the current system. An untracked file that matches patterns listed in .gitignore is treated as the latter.

When you have an untracked file that .gitignore knows about in the working tree while you are on "feature", if switching to another branch requires to remove that file, the content there is deemed expendable, because the user said so by listing it in .gitignore.

We've discussed the lack of "untracked but precious" class a few times on the list in the past, but I do not recall the topic came up in the recent past. It perhaps is because nobody found that class useful enough so far.