# git clean --exclude broken? 4 messages from 2024-11-24 to 2024-12-10. Participants: Homyee King, brian m. carlson. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/62532 ## Homyee King, 2024-11-24 11:10 Subject: git clean --exclude broken? Message-ID: <1A13EB2A-6075-4CA9-855E-B72ACDA67C0C@gmail.com> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/1A13EB2A-6075-4CA9-855E-B72ACDA67C0C%40gmail.com ``` 13 years ago, Todd Rinaldo found that —exclude option is not works with any options, for example, `git clean -Xd -e=foo` to clean the files/folders respect the .gitignore rule except the foo, but in real world, git only respect the git ignore standard rule and not work with -e option. Today, 13 years later, the problem still exist, so I wonder is this a bug or should we clarify the “correct” usage of exclude in documentation, because it’s really confusing. The discussion can be viewed by this link: https://git.vger.kernel.narkive.com/ulppacPK/clean-exclude-broken Looking forward to your reaply! ``` ## brian m. carlson, 2024-11-24 18:12 Subject: Re: git clean --exclude broken? Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/Z0Nsq3lQZKJZxd-y%40tapette.crustytoothpaste.net In-Reply-To: <1A13EB2A-6075-4CA9-855E-B72ACDA67C0C@gmail.com> ``` On 2024-11-24 at 11:10:57, Homyee King wrote: > 13 years ago, Todd Rinaldo found that —exclude option is not works > with any options, for example, `git clean -Xd -e=foo` to clean the > files/folders respect the .gitignore rule except the foo, but in real > world, git only respect the git ignore standard rule and not work with > -e option. > > Today, 13 years later, the problem still exist, so I wonder is this a > bug or should we clarify the “correct” usage of exclude in > documentation, because it’s really confusing. I don't think this is the right syntax. For example, I did this in my checkout of the Git project: ---- $ touch foo $ git clean -n Would remove foo $ git clean -n -e foo $ git clean -f -e foo $ ls foo foo ---- When you use a short option, you don't specify the equals sign. So you can write `-e foo`, `-efoo`, `--exclude foo`, or `--exclude=foo`. However, `-e=foo` is equivalent to `-e =foo`, which ignores `=foo`. -- brian m. carlson (they/them or he/him) Toronto, Ontario, CA ``` ## brian m. carlson, 2024-11-28 20:58 Subject: Re: git clean --exclude broken? Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/Z0jZfltm0O3y9QoW%40tapette.crustytoothpaste.net In-Reply-To: ``` On 2024-11-26 at 06:13:44, Homyee King wrote: > Thanks for replying. > It's a typo mistake, the correct command is `git clean -Xdn -e foo` but the > problem still exists which is `--exclude` option not work with `-X`, is > that design so or a bug? For example: > > simple-project/ │ ├── foo/ │ > |---- bar/ ├── .gitignore # contains foo/ bar/ │ └── test.ts # untracked > file > > I only want to clear all gitignored files/folder but *`foo/` *and keep the > untrakced files/folders, so here's the command > $ git clean -Xdn -e foo > $ ls > $ Would remove foo/ bar/ I don't think there's a command for what you want to do here. You basically want to clear only ignored files, but exclude one pattern from the ignore rules. `-e` doesn't do that: it _adds_ to the ignore rules, not subtracts from them. So this is what I'd expect to see here with your file structure: ---- % git clean -Xdn -e test.ts Would remove bar/ Would remove foo/ Would remove test.ts ---- since by using `-e`, we've added the additional files to be ignored, and with `-X`, we've said to remove the files. -- brian m. carlson (they/them or he/him) Toronto, Ontario, CA ``` ## brian m. carlson, 2024-12-10 02:23 Subject: Re: git clean --exclude broken? Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/Z1emFS-L-f4caBJ1%40tapette.crustytoothpaste.net In-Reply-To: ``` On 2024-12-09 at 04:53:24, Homyee King wrote: > But if you try *git clean -xdn -e foo*, the *foo *will be excluded and not > what you said *"it _adds_ to the ignore rules". *It's the confusing part > of *`-e` *option, and I think it should always exclude something within the > given pattern. > If we follow what you said, it should be *--include,* what do you think? The `--exclude` option means "exclude this (mark this as ignored) additionally". I agree it could be misinterpreted, but `--include` could as well. The manual page says this about `-e`: Use the given exclude pattern in addition to the standard ignore rules (see gitignore(5)). And the text says this about `-x`: Don’t use the standard ignore rules (see gitignore(5)), but still use the ignore rules given with -e options from the command line. This allows removing all untracked files, including build products. This can be used (possibly in conjunction with git restore or git reset) to create a pristine working directory to test a clean build. That means that when you say `git clean -xdn -e foo`, Git ignores only `foo`, and says it will remove everything else that would normally be ignored (which is no longer ignored, and thus untracked). Remember that `git clean` only removes untracked files and directories, and `-x` just makes all files normally ignored untracked temporarily for the life of the command. Equivalent text exists in the description section of the manual page. I don't think this is confusing or that the text is inaccurate, but of course if you want to submit a patch to improve the text, I'm sure we'd be happy to take a look. -- brian m. carlson (they/them or he/him) Toronto, Ontario, CA ```