Re: [PATCH] ignores: handle non UTF-8 exclude files

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jan 4, 2026, 02:54 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqsecmnl3d.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <pull.2157.git.git.1767478617198.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>

"Matthieu Beauchamp-Boulay via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com> writes:

> From: Matthieu Beauchamp-Boulay <matthieu.beauchamp.boulay@gmail.com>
>
> When reading exclude files, git assumes it is encoded in UTF-8 and will
> fail to apply patterns if it isn't.

Is it true? I thought we assume that the exclude patters are written in such a way to match the encoding of the pathnames, whatever used on the platform that our calls to readdir(3) returns. Some platforms may have compat/ code to convert these paths and force use of UTF-8, but please do not write such platform local conventions as if it were universal characteristics of our system.

"ignores" -> "exclude" on the title, as that is the canonical word we use in the codebase to refer to the ignore mechanism.