Q: Ignore ./foo, but not script/foo

Q: Ignore ./foo, but not script/foo

[Ulrich Windl]

Hi!

I have a (simple) question I could not answer elegantly from the gitignore(5) manual page:

A project produces a "foo" binary in the root directory that I want to ignore (So I put "foo" into .gitignore)
Unfortunately I found out taht I cannot have a "script/foo" added while "foo" is in .gitignore.
So I changed "foo" to "./foo" in .gitignore. I can could add "script/foo", but now "foo" is not ignored any more!

Is there as solution other than:?
--
foo
!script/foo
!bla/foo
#etc.
--

If "foo" is one exception to generally using foo elsewhere, it seems to be counterproductive to have to add exceptions for all the cases that are not exceptions, while "foo" is the only exception...

Did I miss something? If so, maybe add it to a future manual page.

Regards,
Ulrich

Re: Q: Ignore ./foo, but not script/foo

[3Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason]

On Thu, Jul 19 2018, Ulrich Windl wrote:

> Hi!
>
> I have a (simple) question I could not answer elegantly from the gitignore(5) manual page:
>
> A project produces a "foo" binary in the root directory that I want to ignore (So I put "foo" into .gitignore)
> Unfortunately I found out taht I cannot have a "script/foo" added while "foo" is in .gitignore.
> So I changed "foo" to "./foo" in .gitignore. I can could add "script/foo", but now "foo" is not ignored any more!
>
> Is there as solution other than:?
> --
> foo
> !script/foo
> !bla/foo
> #etc.

The solution is to just do:

    echo /foo >.gitignore

Then it'll ignore the top-level /foo, but nothing else. How did you come
up with this "./" syntax? It's not understood by gitignore. From
gitignore(5):

   A leading slash matches the beginning of the pathname. For example,
   "/*.c" matches "cat-file.c" but not "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c".

Re: Q: Ignore ./foo, but not script/foo

[Timothy Rice]

> How did you come up with this "./" syntax?

It is a Unix thing: "./" or just "." refers to the current directory.

When calling scripts or programs in the current directory from a Unix
command line, it is required to refer to them as, say, "./foo" (not just
"foo") -- unless "." is in your PATH.

Most people do put "." in their PATH for convenience but it is considered a
little unsafe [1].

Personally, I am surprised that gitignore does not understand this
notation. To me, OPs meaning was crystal clear: "./foo" should mean to only
ignore the foo in the repository's root directory.

[1] https://superuser.com/questions/156582/why-is-not-in-the-path-by-default

~ Tim

Re: Q: Ignore ./foo, but not script/foo

[Konstantin Khomoutov]

On Thu, Jul 19, 2018 at 07:06:57PM +1000, Timothy Rice wrote:

[...]
> Most people do put "." in their PATH for convenience
[...]

IMO this is a gross overstatement: personally, I know of no person using
a Unix-like operation system who does this.

Re: Q: Ignore ./foo, but not script/foo

[Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason]

On Thu, Jul 19 2018, Timothy Rice wrote:

>> How did you come up with this "./" syntax?
>
> It is a Unix thing: "./" or just "." refers to the current directory.
>
> When calling scripts or programs in the current directory from a Unix
> command line, it is required to refer to them as, say, "./foo" (not just
> "foo") -- unless "." is in your PATH.
>
> Most people do put "." in their PATH for convenience but it is considered a
> little unsafe [1].
>
> Personally, I am surprised that gitignore does not understand this
> notation. To me, OPs meaning was crystal clear: "./foo" should mean to only
> ignore the foo in the repository's root directory.
>
> [1] https://superuser.com/questions/156582/why-is-not-in-the-path-by-default

To clarify I was trying to fish for whether we'd accidentally documented
"./" somewhere since OP was making references to the docs.

Antw: Re: Q: Ignore ./foo, but not script/foo

[Ulrich Windl]

>>> Sebastian Staudt <koraktor@gmail.com> schrieb am 19.07.2018 um 09:55 in
Nachricht
<CA+xP2SZJ0VN0Y7SChAx1a8joVMKMU2R9d0je801i=9SuLicF3w@mail.gmail.com>:
> Hello Ulrich,
> 
> if you want to ignore a file in the root of the repository (and only
> there) this is the correct syntax:
> 
>     /foo

Hi!

Thanks, you are perfectly right: It works, and actually, when read carefully enough, the last item in "PATTERN FORMAT" explains that.

Maybe the EXAMPLES could have an example for each item (5 cases) described ;-)

Regards,
Ulrich

> 
> Best regards,
>     Sebastian
> Am Do., 19. Juli 2018 um 09:45 Uhr schrieb Ulrich Windl
> <Ulrich.Windl@rz.uni-regensburg.de>:
>>
>> Hi!
>>
>> I have a (simple) question I could not answer elegantly from the 
> gitignore(5) manual page:
>>
>> A project produces a "foo" binary in the root directory that I want to 
> ignore (So I put "foo" into .gitignore)
>> Unfortunately I found out taht I cannot have a "script/foo" added while 
> "foo" is in .gitignore.
>> So I changed "foo" to "./foo" in .gitignore. I can could add "script/foo", 
> but now "foo" is not ignored any more!
>>
>> Is there as solution other than:?
>> --
>> foo
>> !script/foo
>> !bla/foo
>> #etc.
>> --
>>
>> If "foo" is one exception to generally using foo elsewhere, it seems to be 
> counterproductive to have to add exceptions for all the cases that are not 
> exceptions, while "foo" is the only exception...
>>
>> Did I miss something? If so, maybe add it to a future manual page.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Ulrich
>>
>>