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git/Documentation/gitignore.txt
Josh Triplett cedb8d5d33 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 <josh@freedesktop.org>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
2007-06-02 11:59:19 -07:00

117 lines
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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@vger.kernel.org>.
GIT
---
Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite