Gitignore documentation

Gitignore documentation

[Maris Razvan]

Hello,

I was reading the gitignore documentation
(https://git-scm.com/docs/gitignore), especially the following
paragraph:

         "If the pattern does not contain a slash /, Git treats it as
a shell glob pattern and checks for a match against the pathname
relative to the location of the .gitignore file (relative to the
toplevel of the work tree if not from a .gitignore file)."

From that paragraph I understand that if I have the following
directory structure:

        .gitignore
        a
            f

(the root of the repository contains the file .gitignore and the
folder a, while the file f is inside folder a)
where the file .gitignore contains only the pattern f, when file "f"
is tested whether it should be ignored or not, the pattern f in
.gitignore is matched against the "pathname relative to the location
of the .gitignore file" (which is a/f). Because "f" (the pattern) does
not match "a/f" (the pathname relative to the location of .gitignore),
the file "f" should not be ignored. However, if I test this scenario,
git ignores the file (this behaviour is consistent with the examples
from the rest of the documentation and other explanations on the
internet).

I looked at the history of the "Documentation/gitignore.txt" file on
the github repository and I saw that initially the paragraph looked
like this:

        "If the pattern does not contain a slash '/', git treats it as
a shell glob pattern and checks for a match against the pathname
without leading directories."

This old version of the paragraph is consistent with git's current behaviour.

Then I saw the following commit
https://github.com/git/git/commit/81c13fde379c46cad6b6e4a03ed7ee4f686c030f#diff-7fea460d44f92f185e7add8aa5620305,
which changed that paragraph to the current version.
However, I cannot see how the two wordings (the original one and the
current one) are the same.

I would really appreciate if someone could explain how to read the
current version of the paragraph such that it is consistent with git's
behaviour.



Thank you,
Razvan Maris

Re: Gitignore documentation

[Junio C Hamano]

Maris Razvan <razvan.alex.maris@gmail.com> writes:

> I was reading the gitignore documentation
> (https://git-scm.com/docs/gitignore), especially the following
> paragraph:
>
>          "If the pattern does not contain a slash /, Git treats it as
> a shell glob pattern and checks for a match against the pathname
> relative to the location of the .gitignore file (relative to the
> toplevel of the work tree if not from a .gitignore file)."
>
> From that paragraph I understand that if I have the following
> directory structure:
>
>         .gitignore
>         a
>             f
>
> (the root of the repository contains the file .gitignore and the
> folder a, while the file f is inside folder a)
> where the file .gitignore contains only the pattern f, when file "f"
> is tested whether it should be ignored or not, the pattern f in
> .gitignore is matched against the "pathname relative to the location
> of the .gitignore file" (which is a/f). Because "f" (the pattern) does
> not match "a/f" (the pathname relative to the location of .gitignore),
> the file "f" should not be ignored. However, if I test this scenario,
> git ignores the file (this behaviour is consistent with the examples
> from the rest of the documentation and other explanations on the
> internet).
>
> I looked at the history of the "Documentation/gitignore.txt" file on
> the github repository and I saw that initially the paragraph looked
> like this:
>
>         "If the pattern does not contain a slash '/', git treats it as
> a shell glob pattern and checks for a match against the pathname
> without leading directories."
>
> This old version of the paragraph is consistent with git's current behaviour.
>
> Then I saw the following commit
> https://github.com/git/git/commit/81c13fde379c46cad6b6e4a03ed7ee4f686c030f#diff-7fea460d44f92f185e7add8aa5620305,
> which changed that paragraph to the current version.
> However, I cannot see how the two wordings (the original one and the
> current one) are the same.

Thanks.

Jonathan, after re-reading 81c13fde ("gitignore.5: Clarify matching
rules", 2010-03-05), I do not recall why we thought this part of the
change was a good idea, either.  Patterns with slash is anchored at
one directory, and that directory is the one that has per-directory
.gitignore file.  Patterns without slash (including a pattern that
ends with but otherwise has no other slash) are supposed to match at
every level below the directory that the pattern is defined in.








 Documentation/gitignore.txt | 4 +---
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/gitignore.txt b/Documentation/gitignore.txt
index 1c94f08ff4..bf1182169e 100644
--- a/Documentation/gitignore.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gitignore.txt
@@ -98,9 +98,7 @@ PATTERN FORMAT
 
  - If the pattern does not contain a slash '/', Git treats it as
    a shell glob pattern and checks for a match against the
-   pathname relative to the location of the `.gitignore` file
-   (relative to the toplevel of the work tree if not from a
-   `.gitignore` file).
+   pathname without leading directories.
 
  - Otherwise, Git treats the pattern as a shell glob: "`*`" matches
    anything except "`/`", "`?`" matches any one character except "`/`"

Re: Gitignore documentation

[Jonathan Nieder]

Hi,

Junio C Hamano wrote:

>                                  Patterns with slash is anchored at
> one directory, and that directory is the one that has per-directory
> .gitignore file.  Patterns without slash (including a pattern that
> ends with but otherwise has no other slash) are supposed to match at
> every level below the directory that the pattern is defined in.

I had a sense of deja vu, and found
https://public-inbox.org/git/20111107080926.GC30486@elie.hsd1.il.comcast.net/

Any idea what happened there?  Would it be useful for me to rebase
and revive that series?

Thanks,
Jonathan

Re: Gitignore documentation

[Junio C Hamano]

Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com> writes:

> https://public-inbox.org/git/20111107080926.GC30486@elie.hsd1.il.comcast.net/
>
> Any idea what happened there?  Would it be useful for me to rebase
> and revive that series?

No idea what happend there.

Anyway, I quickly read them over and found nothing questionable,
except perhaps the moving of "slash is dropped for the purpose of
the remaining rules" in 1/4 were probably not a great idea (IOW, I
found that it leaves a stronger impression to the readers to say it
upfront in the paragraph), but I do not think it is a show-stopper.

Reviving the topic would indeed be a good idea.

Thanks.

Re: Gitignore documentation

[Duy Nguyen]

On Tue, Jan 15, 2019 at 4:38 AM Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Junio C Hamano wrote:
>
> >                                  Patterns with slash is anchored at
> > one directory, and that directory is the one that has per-directory
> > .gitignore file.  Patterns without slash (including a pattern that
> > ends with but otherwise has no other slash) are supposed to match at
> > every level below the directory that the pattern is defined in.
>
> I had a sense of deja vu, and found
> https://public-inbox.org/git/20111107080926.GC30486@elie.hsd1.il.comcast.net/
>
> Any idea what happened there?  Would it be useful for me to rebase
> and revive that series?

I don't remember what happened either. But yeah it's always good to
improve this text.
-- 
Duy