Johan HerlandThe todo list at the end of the user manual says that something must be said about .gitignore. Also, there seems to be a lack of documentation on how to choose between the various types of ignore files (.gitignore vs. .git/info/exclude, etc.).
This patch adds a section on ignoring files which try to introduce how to tell git about ignored files, and how the different strategies complement eachother.
The syntax of exclude patterns is explained in a simplified manner, with a reference to git-ls-files(1) which already contains a more thorough explanation.
Signed-off-by: Johan Herland <johan@herland.net> --- Writing this section was triggered by Randal L. Schwartz on #git lamenting the lack of documentation on the difference between .gitignore and .git/info/exclude. Hope this is what you're looking for, Randal. :)
Documentation/user-manual.txt | 69 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++- 1 files changed, 67 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
Show changes to Documentation/user-manual.txt +67 −2
diff --git a/Documentation/user-manual.txt b/Documentation/user-manual.txt index a7abeaa..4ca30dd 100644 --- a/Documentation/user-manual.txt +++ b/Documentation/user-manual.txt @@ -1188,6 +1188,73 @@ description. Tools that turn commits into email, for example, use the first line on the Subject line and the rest of the commit in the body. +[[ignoring-files]] +Ignoring files +-------------- + +A project will often generate files that you do 'not' want to track with git. +This typically includes files generated by a build process or temporary +backup files made by your editor. Of course, 'not' tracking files with git +is just a matter of 'not' calling "git add" on them. But it might be +annoying to have these untracked files automatically showing up in the +output of "git status", in the commit message template, etc. + +Git therefore provides "exclude patterns" for telling git which files to +actively ignore. Exclude patterns are thoroughly explained in the +"Exclude Patterns" section of the gitlink:git-ls-files[1] manual page, +but the heart of the concept is simply a list of files which git should +ignore. Entries in the list may contain globs to specify multiple files, +or may be prefixed by "`!`" to explicitly include (un-ignore) a file. +The following example should illustrate such patterns: + +------------------------------------------------- +# Lines starting with '#' are considered comments. +# Ignore foo.txt. +foo.txt +# Ignore (generated) html files, +*.html +# except foo.html which is maintained by hand. +!foo.html +# Ignore objects and archives. +*.[oa] +------------------------------------------------- + +The next question is where to put these exclude patterns so that git can +find them. Git looks for exclude patterns in the following files: + +`.gitignore` files in your working tree::: + You may store multiple `.gitignore` files at various locations in your + working tree. Each `.gitignore` file is applied to the directory where + it's located, including its subdirectories. Furthermore, the + `.gitignore` files can be tracked like any other files in your working + tree; just do a `git add .gitignore` and commit. `.gitignore` is + therefore the perfect place to put exclude patterns that match + ignored files that pop up in every copy of your project, such as + build output files (e.g. `\*.o`), etc. +`.git/info/exclude` in your repo::: + Exclude patterns in this file are applied to the working tree as a + whole. Since the file is not located in your working tree, it does + not follow push/pull/clone like `.gitignore` can do. This is therefore + the best place to put exclude patterns that you want to keep local + to your copy of the repo, such as temporary backups made by your + editor (e.g. `\*~`), etc. +The file specified by the `core.excludesfile` config directive::: + By setting the `core.excludesfile` config directive you can tell git + where to find more exclude patterns (see gitlink:git-config[1] for + more information on configuration options). This config directive + can be set in the per-repo `.git/config` file, in which case the + exclude patterns will apply to that repo only. Alternatively, you + can set the directive in the global `~/.gitconfig` file to apply + the exclude pattern to all your git repos. As with the above + `.git/info/exclude` (and, indeed, with git config directives in + general), this directive does not follow push/pull/clone, but stays + local to your repo(s). + +[NOTE] +In addition to the above alternatives, there are git commands that can take +exclude patterns directly on the command line. See gitlink:git-ls-files[1] +for an example of this. + [[how-to-merge]] How to merge ------------ @@ -3184,8 +3251,6 @@ Think about how to create a clear chapter dependency graph that will allow people to get to important topics without necessarily reading everything in between. -Say something about .gitignore. - Scan Documentation/ for other stuff left out; in particular: howto's some of technical/?
-- 1.5.1.4
