On Fri, Oct 06, 2017 at 01:39:16PM -0400, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> On Fri, 6 Oct 2017, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> > This is primarily why .git/info/exclude exists.  A user who does not
> > use the same set of tools to work on different projects may not be
> > able to use ~/.gitconfig with core.excludesFile pointing at a single
> > place that applies to _all_ repositories the user touches.
> >
> > Also, core.excludesFile came a lot later than in-project and
> > in-repository exclude list, IIRC.
> >
> > Don't waste time by seeking a "compelling" reason.  A mere "this is
> > the most expedite way to gain convenience" back when something was
> > introduced could be an answer, and it is way too late to complain
> > about such a choice anyway.
> 
>   perfectly respectable answer ... it tells me that, between
> .gitignore files and core.excludesFile, there's not much left for
> .git/info/exclude to do, except in weird circumstances.

A place where I use it is in some Vim package repositories that I have
as submodules of my home directory.  The author of those repositories,
Tim Pope, explicitly does not exclude the helptags output.  I simply
ignore those files using .git/info/exclude.

Another case is when I install a plugin that lives below a our main
product repository at work.  I can simply exclude that plugin locally on
my system without the need to submit a change for merge.  I can later
remove those patterns if I like and run git clean -df to clean up.
-- 
brian m. carlson / brian with sandals: Houston, Texas, US
https://www.crustytoothpaste.net/~bmc | My opinion only
OpenPGP: https://keybase.io/bk2204