[BUG] ls-files '**' globstar matches one or more directories instead of zero or more directories

To reproduce, go to any git repository and run:

    diff <(git ls-files '**/*' | sort) <(git ls-files | sort)

Expected result: No output since both commands should produce identical output.

Actual result: '**/*' only matches files at least one directory deep.

The same happens with eg '**/Makefile' - only Makefiles in subdirectories are listed.

I have personally tested with 2.7.8 and 2.12.0. Others on IRC report that this happens in the next branch.

On Sat, Apr 15, 2017 at 2:17 AM, Alistair Buxton <a.j.buxton@gmail.com> wrote:

Another data point. t3070-wildmatch.sh has a test for this case

match 1 0 'foo' '**/foo'

so the pattern matching machinery is _not_ broken. There may be some changes in ls-files (pathspec-related?) that leads to this. But I didn't try to bisect it.

On Sat, Apr 15, 2017 at 2:17 AM, Alistair Buxton <a.j.buxton@gmail.com> wrote:

Actually the '**/' magic only kicks in if you write

git ls-files ':(glob)**/*'

Without that '**' is a normal '*' and matching just subdirs is expected.

On 16 April 2017 at 12:25, Duy Nguyen <pclouds@gmail.com> wrote:

But '*/' should match exactly one subdirectory deep. Instead it matches one more more subdirectories.

Meaning it behaves the way '**/*/' should.

Try the following in the git source repo:

    shopt -s globstar
    diff <(ls -1 */.gitignore | sort) <(git ls-files '*/.gitignore' | sort)
    diff <(ls -1 */**/.gitignore | sort) <(git ls-files '*/.gitignore' | sort)

of course it works as expected if you say the magic word:

    diff <(ls -1 */.gitignore | sort) <(git ls-files
':(glob)*/.gitignore' | sort)

On IRC someone pointed me to the glossary section for pathspec, and I find that even more confusing.

In the section about ":(glob)" it says:

This is not true for ls-files: ":(glob)**/.gitignore" is completely different to ":(glob).gitignore".

The only place where it is true is inside .gitignore files, and there the ":(glob)" syntax does not work.