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diff --git a/Documentation/gitignore.txt b/Documentation/gitignore.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..2881c9cb92 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/gitignore.txt @@ -0,0 +1,141 @@ +gitignore(5) +============ + +NAME +---- +gitignore - Specifies intentionally untracked files to ignore + +SYNOPSIS +-------- +$GIT_DIR/info/exclude, .gitignore + +DESCRIPTION +----------- + +A `gitignore` file specifies intentionally untracked files that +git should ignore. Each line in a `gitignore` file specifies a +pattern. + +When deciding whether to ignore a path, git normally checks +`gitignore` patterns from multiple sources, with the following +order of precedence, from highest to lowest (within one level of +precedence, the last matching pattern decides the outcome): + + * Patterns read from the command line for those commands that support + them. + + * Patterns read from a `.gitignore` file in the same directory + as the path, or in any parent directory, with patterns in the + higher level files (up to the root) being overridden by those in + lower level files down to the directory containing the file. + These patterns match relative to the location of the + `.gitignore` file. A project normally includes such + `.gitignore` files in its repository, containing patterns for + files generated as part of the project build. + + * Patterns read from `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude`. + + * Patterns read from the file specified by the configuration + variable 'core.excludesfile'. + +Which file to place a pattern in depends on how the pattern is meant to +be used. Patterns which should be version-controlled and distributed to +other repositories via clone (i.e., files that all developers will want +to ignore) should go into a `.gitignore` file. Patterns which are +specific to a particular repository but which do not need to be shared +with other related repositories (e.g., auxiliary files that live inside +the repository but are specific to one user's workflow) should go into +the `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude` file. Patterns which a user wants git to +ignore in all situations (e.g., backup or temporary files generated by +the user's editor of choice) generally go into a file specified by +`core.excludesfile` in the user's `~/.gitconfig`. + +The underlying git plumbing tools, such as +linkgit:git-ls-files[1] and linkgit: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 linkgit:git-status[1] and linkgit: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 a negated pattern matches, this will + override lower precedence patterns sources. + + - If the pattern ends with a slash, it is removed for the + purpose of the following description, but it would only find + a match with a directory. In other words, `foo/` will match a + directory `foo` and paths underneath it, but will not match a + regular file or a symbolic link `foo` (this is consistent + with the way how pathspec works in general in git). + + - 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 linkgit:git[1] suite |