Re: Bug with .gitignore and branch switching

[Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>]

Nevada Sanchez <sanchez.nevada@gmail.com> writes:

> Here's an easy to reproduce bug. It's the only example I know of where
> git legitimately loses data in a way that is unrecoverable,
> unexpected, and without warning.

This is an example of a user explicitly telling git to discard data
and git performing as it is told.

There is no "untracked but precious" vs "untracked and expendable"
difference in the current system.  An untracked file that matches
patterns listed in .gitignore is treated as the latter.

When you have an untracked file that .gitignore knows about in the
working tree while you are on "feature", if switching to another
branch requires to remove that file, the content there is deemed
expendable, because the user said so by listing it in .gitignore.

We've discussed the lack of "untracked but precious" class a few
times on the list in the past, but I do not recall the topic came up
in the recent past.  It perhaps is because nobody found that class
useful enough so far.