Show 24 quoted lines
>> At any rate, would it at least be a good idea to make the "trailing >> slash halts recursion, won't consider nested .gitignore files" >> explicit in the `.gitignore` doc? Unless I'm missing it, I don't think >> that behavior is called out (or at least not called out concisely/in >> one place). It looks like this is all there is: > > Yeah, it's definitely come up multiple times over the years. I don't > know what all is in gitignore(5), but if it's not mentioned it probably > should be. > >> "If the pattern ends with a slash, it is removed for the purpose >> of the following description, but it would only find a match with a >> directory. In other words, foo/ will match a directory foo and paths >> underneath it, but will not match a regular file or a symbolic link >> foo (this is consistent with the way how pathspec works in general in >> Git)." >> >> Also, I'm not sure what the "following description" is in "it is >> removed for the purpose of the following description". Is that trying >> to imply "excluded from the rest of the doc"? > > I think it means "for the rest of the description of how the patterns > work". I.e., "foo/" matches as "foo" when the rest of the matching rules > are applied. I agree it's a bit awkward. Patches welcome. :)
I hope this is correct. I tried to follow the instructions. Please let me know if I need to fix something with how I'm sending this!
-- >8 -- Subject: [PATCH] doc: clarify non-recursion for ignore paths like `foo/`
The behavior of .gitignore patterns ending with trailing slashes is unclear. The user may expect subsequent matching patterns to matter, while they do not. For example:
foo/ # Ignores `foo` directories and everything inside of them !foo/*.txt # Does nothing
Explain this behavior (and its implications) more explicitly.
Signed-off-by: Dakota Hawkins <daktoahawkins@gmail.com> --- Documentation/gitignore.txt | 17 +++++++++++------ 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
Show changes to Documentation/gitignore.txt +11 −6
diff --git a/Documentation/gitignore.txt b/Documentation/gitignore.txt index ff5d7f9ed..e9c34c1d5 100644 --- a/Documentation/gitignore.txt +++ b/Documentation/gitignore.txt @@ -89,12 +89,17 @@ PATTERN FORMAT Put a backslash ("`\`") in front of the first "`!`" for patterns that begin with a literal "`!`", for example, "`\!important!.txt`". - - If the pattern ends with a slash, it is removed for the - purpose of the following description, but it would only find - a match with a directory. In other words, `foo/` will match a - directory `foo` and paths underneath it, but will not match a - regular file or a symbolic link `foo` (this is consistent - with the way how pathspec works in general in Git). + - If the pattern ends with a slash it will match directories but prevent + further recursion into subdirectories. In other words, `foo/` will match a + directory `foo`, excluding files and paths underneath it, but will not match + a regular file or a symbolic link `foo` (this is consistent with the way + that pathspec works in general in Git). Consequently, `foo/` will prevent + consideration of subsequent matches, including exclusions (for example, + `!foo/*.noignore`). In order to match `foo/` directories while allowing for + possible later exclusions, consider using a trailing wildcard (`foo/*`). + Note that matching directories with a trailing wildcard incurs some + additional performance cost, since it requires recursion into + subdirectories. - If the pattern does not contain a slash '/', Git treats it as a shell glob pattern and checks for a match against the
-- 2.16.2.windows.1
