From cedb8d5d33e6496cfc70493db841b3db886e8658 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Josh Triplett Date: Sat, 2 Jun 2007 10:08:54 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] Create a new manpage for the gitignore format, and reference it elsewhere Only git-ls-files(1) describes the gitignore format in detail, and it does so with reference to git-ls-files options. Most users don't use the plumbing command git-ls-files directly, and shouldn't have to look in its manpage for information on the gitignore format. Create a new manpage gitignore(5) (Documentation/gitignore.txt), and factor out the gitignore documentation into that file, changing it to refer to .gitignore and $GIT_DIR/info/exclude as used by porcelain commands. Reference gitignore(5) from other relevant manpages and documentation. Remove now-redundant information on exclude patterns from git-ls-files(1), leaving only information on how git-ls-files options specify exclude patterns and what precedence they have. Signed-off-by: Josh Triplett Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano --- Documentation/Makefile | 2 +- Documentation/config.txt | 3 +- Documentation/git-ls-files.txt | 99 ++++-------------------- Documentation/git-read-tree.txt | 3 +- Documentation/git-status.txt | 8 +- Documentation/gitignore.txt | 116 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Documentation/repository-layout.txt | 3 +- Documentation/user-manual.txt | 12 +-- 8 files changed, 145 insertions(+), 101 deletions(-) create mode 100644 Documentation/gitignore.txt diff --git a/Documentation/Makefile b/Documentation/Makefile index 4064b38c4..9cef4806d 100644 --- a/Documentation/Makefile +++ b/Documentation/Makefile @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ MAN1_TXT= \ $(filter-out $(addsuffix .txt, $(ARTICLES) $(SP_ARTICLES)), \ $(wildcard git-*.txt)) \ gitk.txt -MAN5_TXT=gitattributes.txt +MAN5_TXT=gitattributes.txt gitignore.txt MAN7_TXT=git.txt DOC_HTML=$(patsubst %.txt,%.html,$(MAN1_TXT) $(MAN5_TXT) $(MAN7_TXT)) diff --git a/Documentation/config.txt b/Documentation/config.txt index fdb71de9f..7d9afe20f 100644 --- a/Documentation/config.txt +++ b/Documentation/config.txt @@ -266,7 +266,8 @@ Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported. core.excludeFile:: In addition to '.gitignore' (per-directory) and '.git/info/exclude', git looks into this file for patterns - of files which are not meant to be tracked. + of files which are not meant to be tracked. See + gitlink:gitignore[5]. alias.*:: Command aliases for the gitlink:git[1] command wrapper - e.g. diff --git a/Documentation/git-ls-files.txt b/Documentation/git-ls-files.txt index 43e0d2266..a78a9ff1b 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-ls-files.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-ls-files.txt @@ -139,46 +139,24 @@ Exclude Patterns 'git-ls-files' can use a list of "exclude patterns" when traversing the directory tree and finding files to show when the -flags --others or --ignored are specified. +flags --others or --ignored are specified. gitlink:gitignore[5] +specifies the format of exclude patterns. -These exclude patterns come from these places: +These exclude patterns come from these places, in order: - 1. command line flag --exclude= specifies a single - pattern. + 1. The command line flag --exclude= specifies a + single pattern. Patterns are ordered in the same order + they appear in the command line. - 2. command line flag --exclude-from= specifies a list of - patterns stored in a file. + 2. The command line flag --exclude-from= specifies a + file containing a list of patterns. Patterns are ordered + in the same order they appear in the file. 3. command line flag --exclude-per-directory= specifies a name of the file in each directory 'git-ls-files' - examines, and if exists, its contents are used as an - additional list of patterns. - -An exclude pattern file used by (2) and (3) contains one pattern -per line. A line that starts with a '#' can be used as comment -for readability. - -There are three lists of patterns that are in effect at a given -time. They are built and ordered in the following way: - - * --exclude= from the command line; patterns are - ordered in the same order as they appear on the command line. - - * lines read from --exclude-from=; patterns are ordered - in the same order as they appear in the file. - - * When --exclude-per-directory= is specified, upon - entering a directory that has such a file, its contents are - appended at the end of the current "list of patterns". They - are popped off when leaving the directory. - -Each pattern in the pattern list specifies "a match pattern" and -optionally the fate; either a file that matches the pattern is -considered excluded or included. A filename is matched against -the patterns in the three lists; the --exclude-from list is -checked first, then the --exclude-per-directory list, and then -finally the --exclude list. The last match determines its fate. -If there is no match in the three lists, the fate is "included". + examines, normally `.gitignore`. Files in deeper + directories take precedence. Patterns are ordered in the + same order they appear in the files. A pattern specified on the command line with --exclude or read from the file specified with --exclude-from is relative to the @@ -186,58 +164,9 @@ top of the directory tree. A pattern read from a file specified by --exclude-per-directory is relative to the directory that the pattern file appears in. -An exclude pattern is of the following format: - - - an optional prefix '!' which means that the fate this pattern - specifies is "include", not the usual "exclude"; the - remainder of the pattern string is interpreted according to - the following rules. - - - if it does not contain a slash '/', it is a shell glob - pattern and used to match against the filename without - leading directories. - - - otherwise, it is a shell glob pattern, suitable for - consumption by fnmatch(3) with FNM_PATHNAME flag. I.e. a - slash in the pattern must match a slash in the pathname. - "Documentation/\*.html" matches "Documentation/git.html" but - not "ppc/ppc.html". As a natural exception, "/*.c" matches - "cat-file.c" but not "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c". - -An example: - --------------------------------------------------------------- - $ cat .git/info/exclude - # ignore objects and archives, anywhere in the tree. - *.[oa] - $ cat Documentation/.gitignore - # ignore generated html files, - *.html - # except foo.html which is maintained by hand - !foo.html - $ git-ls-files --ignored \ - --exclude='Documentation/*.[0-9]' \ - --exclude-from=.git/info/exclude \ - --exclude-per-directory=.gitignore --------------------------------------------------------------- - -Another example: - --------------------------------------------------------------- - $ cat .gitignore - vmlinux* - $ ls arch/foo/kernel/vm* - arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S - $ echo '!/vmlinux*' >arch/foo/kernel/.gitignore --------------------------------------------------------------- - -The second .gitignore keeps `arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S` file -from getting ignored. - - See Also -------- -gitlink:git-read-tree[1] +gitlink:git-read-tree[1], gitlink:gitignore[5] Author @@ -246,7 +175,7 @@ Written by Linus Torvalds Documentation -------------- -Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list . +Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano, Josh Triplett, and the git-list . GIT --- diff --git a/Documentation/git-read-tree.txt b/Documentation/git-read-tree.txt index 019c8bef7..acb57447a 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-read-tree.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-read-tree.txt @@ -341,7 +341,8 @@ have finished your work-in-progress), attempt the merge again. See Also -------- -gitlink:git-write-tree[1]; gitlink:git-ls-files[1] +gitlink:git-write-tree[1]; gitlink:git-ls-files[1]; +gitlink:gitignore[5] Author diff --git a/Documentation/git-status.txt b/Documentation/git-status.txt index d7015387b..1fd1af102 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-status.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-status.txt @@ -42,11 +42,9 @@ mean the same thing and the latter is kept for backward compatibility) and `color.status.` configuration variables to colorize its output. -As for gitlink:git-add[1], the configuration variable -'core.excludesfile' can indicate a path to a file containing patterns -of file names to exclude, in addition to patterns given in -'info/exclude' and '.gitignore'. - +See Also +-------- +gitlink:gitignore[5] Author ------ diff --git a/Documentation/gitignore.txt b/Documentation/gitignore.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ea79d74b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/gitignore.txt @@ -0,0 +1,116 @@ +gitignore(5) +============ + +NAME +---- +gitignore - Specifies intentionally untracked files to ignore + +SYNOPSIS +-------- +$GIT_DIR/info/exclude, .gitignore + +DESCRIPTION +----------- + +A `gitignore` file specifies intentionally untracked files that +git should ignore. Each line in a `gitignore` file specifies a +pattern. + +When deciding whether to ignore a path, git normally checks +`gitignore` patterns from multiple sources, with the following +order of precedence: + + * Patterns read from the file specified by the configuration + variable 'core.excludesfile'. + + * Patterns read from `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude`. + + * Patterns read from a `.gitignore` file in the same directory + as the path, or in any parent directory, ordered from the + deepest such file to a file in the root of the repository. + These patterns match relative to the location of the + `.gitignore` file. A project normally includes such + `.gitignore` files in its repository, containing patterns for + files generated as part of the project build. + +The underlying git plumbing tools, such as +gitlink:git-ls-files[1] and gitlink:git-read-tree[1], read +`gitignore` patterns specified by command-line options, or from +files specified by command-line options. Higher-level git +tools, such as gitlink:git-status[1] and gitlink:git-add[1], +use patterns from the sources specified above. + +Patterns have the following format: + + - A blank line matches no files, so it can serve as a separator + for readability. + + - A line starting with # serves as a comment. + + - An optional prefix '!' which negates the pattern; any + matching file excluded by a previous pattern will become + included again. + + - 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. + + - Otherwise, git treats the pattern as a shell glob suitable + for consumption by fnmatch(3) with the FNM_PATHNAME flag: + wildcards in the pattern will not match a / in the pathname. + For example, "Documentation/\*.html" matches + "Documentation/git.html" but not + "Documentation/ppc/ppc.html". A leading slash matches the + beginning of the pathname; for example, "/*.c" matches + "cat-file.c" but not "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c". + +An example: + +-------------------------------------------------------------- + $ git-status + [...] + # Untracked files: + [...] + # Documentation/foo.html + # Documentation/gitignore.html + # file.o + # lib.a + # src/internal.o + [...] + $ cat .git/info/exclude + # ignore objects and archives, anywhere in the tree. + *.[oa] + $ cat Documentation/.gitignore + # ignore generated html files, + *.html + # except foo.html which is maintained by hand + !foo.html + $ git-status + [...] + # Untracked files: + [...] + # Documentation/foo.html + [...] +-------------------------------------------------------------- + +Another example: + +-------------------------------------------------------------- + $ cat .gitignore + vmlinux* + $ ls arch/foo/kernel/vm* + arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S + $ echo '!/vmlinux*' >arch/foo/kernel/.gitignore +-------------------------------------------------------------- + +The second .gitignore prevents git from ignoring +`arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S`. + +Documentation +------------- +Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano, Josh Triplett, +Frank Lichtenheld, and the git-list . + +GIT +--- +Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite diff --git a/Documentation/repository-layout.txt b/Documentation/repository-layout.txt index 0459bd9ca..15221b532 100644 --- a/Documentation/repository-layout.txt +++ b/Documentation/repository-layout.txt @@ -155,8 +155,7 @@ info/exclude:: exclude pattern list. `.gitignore` is the per-directory ignore file. `git status`, `git add`, `git rm` and `git clean` look at it but the core git commands do not look - at it. See also: gitlink:git-ls-files[1] `--exclude-from` - and `--exclude-per-directory`. + at it. See also: gitlink:gitignore[5]. remotes:: Stores shorthands to be used to give URL and default diff --git a/Documentation/user-manual.txt b/Documentation/user-manual.txt index 4fabb8e2a..7eaafa80e 100644 --- a/Documentation/user-manual.txt +++ b/Documentation/user-manual.txt @@ -1103,12 +1103,12 @@ showing up in the output of "`git status`", 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 previously -excluded (ignored) file (i.e. later exclude patterns override earlier ones). -The following example should illustrate such patterns: +gitlink:gitignore[5] 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 previously excluded (ignored) file +(i.e. later exclude patterns override earlier ones). The following +example should illustrate such patterns: ------------------------------------------------- # Lines starting with '#' are considered comments. -- 2.26.2