Merge branch 'en/present-despite-skipped'

In sparse-checkouts, files mis-marked as missing from the working tree
could lead to later problems.  Such files were hard to discover, and
harder to correct.  Automatically detecting and correcting the marking
of such files has been added to avoid these problems.

* en/present-despite-skipped:
  repo_read_index: add config to expect files outside sparse patterns
  Accelerate clear_skip_worktree_from_present_files() by caching
  Update documentation related to sparsity and the skip-worktree bit
  repo_read_index: clear SKIP_WORKTREE bit from files present in worktree
  unpack-trees: fix accidental loss of user changes
  t1011: add testcase demonstrating accidental loss of user modifications

1 files changed, 27 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/config/sparse.txt b/Documentation/config/sparse.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..aff49a8d3a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/config/sparse.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+sparse.expectFilesOutsideOfPatterns::
+	Typically with sparse checkouts, files not matching any
+	sparsity patterns are marked with a SKIP_WORKTREE bit in the
+	index and are missing from the working tree.  Accordingly, Git
+	will ordinarily check whether files with the SKIP_WORKTREE bit
+	are in fact present in the working tree contrary to
+	expectations.  If Git finds any, it marks those paths as
+	present by clearing the relevant SKIP_WORKTREE bits.  This
+	option can be used to tell Git that such
+	present-despite-skipped files are expected and to stop
+	checking for them.
++
+The default is `false`, which allows Git to automatically recover
+from the list of files in the index and working tree falling out of
+sync.
++
+Set this to `true` if you are in a setup where some external factor
+relieves Git of the responsibility for maintaining the consistency
+between the presence of working tree files and sparsity patterns.  For
+example, if you have a Git-aware virtual file system that has a robust
+mechanism for keeping the working tree and the sparsity patterns up to
+date based on access patterns.
++
+Regardless of this setting, Git does not check for
+present-despite-skipped files unless sparse checkout is enabled, so
+this config option has no effect unless `core.sparseCheckout` is
+`true`.