[BUG] git clean -X behaviour when .gitignore has sub-directory entries

[BUG] git clean -X behaviour when .gitignore has sub-directory entries

[Jean-Philippe Gariépy]

(this is a repost w/ a bit more context)

Hi,

Context:
"git clean -X" is really helpful in my projects to mimick a "make clean" 
(or more precisely a "make distclean") but I believe there is a small 
problem with the -X option of git clean. I've validated this with other 
people and they agree it's a bug.

Problem:
When using sub-directory entries in .gitignore, while the entry is 
ignored as expected, "git clean -X" doesn't clean the ignored sub-directory.

$ git init test
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/jpgariep/git/test/.git/
$ cd test/
$ mkdir -p a/b/c
$ touch a/b/c/test
$ echo '/a/b/' > .gitignore
$ git add .gitignore
$ git commit -m "Added .gitignore."
[master (root-commit) 94e2825] Added .gitignore.
  1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
  create mode 100644 .gitignore
$ git status
# On branch master
nothing to commit (working directory clean)
$ git clean -X -d -f
$ ls a
b

Why is b still there?


Git version:
git version 1.7.2.3  (but this has been around since 1.6.something)
Tested also with 1.7.3.2.g9027fa (today's HEAD of master branch)

Thanks.

-- 
Jean-Philippe

Re: [BUG] git clean -X behaviour when .gitignore has sub-directory entries

[Jonathan Nieder]

Hi,

Jean-Philippe Gariépy wrote:

> When using sub-directory entries in .gitignore, while the entry is
> ignored as expected, "git clean -X" doesn't clean the ignored
> sub-directory.

Thanks for reporting.

 $ cat test.sh
 rm -fr test &&
 git init test &&
 (
	cd test &&
	mkdir -p a/b/c &&
	>a/b/c/f &&
	echo '/a/b/' >.gitignore &&
	git status -s &&
	git clean -X -d -n &&
	git ls-files -o -i --exclude-standard &&
	git ls-files -o --directory -i --exclude-standard &&
	git clean -X -d -f &&
	echo ... drumroll ... &&
	! test -e a/b/c/f
 )
 $ sh test.sh || echo fail
 Initialized empty Git repository in /tmp/test/.git/
 ?? .gitignore
 ... drumroll ...
 fail

Variations:

 1) echo '/a/' >.gitignore
 2) echo '/a/b/c/f' >.gitignore
 3) >a/b/f

(1) does not fail; (2) and (3) still do.

Okay, so why does this happen?  Tracing:

-- 8< --
diff --git a/dir.c b/dir.c
index 133f472..5707ad0 100644
--- a/dir.c
+++ b/dir.c
@@ -693,6 +693,9 @@ static enum path_treatment treat_one_path(struct dir_struct *dir,
 					  int dtype, struct dirent *de)
 {
 	int exclude = excluded(dir, path, &dtype);
+
+	trace_printf("treat_one_path: path=%s exclude=%d\n", path, exclude);
+
 	if (exclude && (dir->flags & DIR_COLLECT_IGNORED)
 	    && exclude_matches_pathspec(path, *len, simplify))
 		dir_add_ignored(dir, path, *len);
-- >8 --

 $ GIT_TRACE=true PATH=/home/jrn/src/git/bin-wrappers:$PATH sh test.sh 
 trace: built-in: git 'init' 'test'
 Initialized empty Git repository in /tmp/test/.git/
 trace: built-in: git 'status' '-s'
 treat_one_path: path=.gitignore exclude=0
 treat_one_path: path=a exclude=0
 treat_one_path: path=a/b exclude=1
 ?? .gitignore
 trace: built-in: git 'clean' '-X' '-d' '-n'
 treat_one_path: path=.gitignore exclude=0
 treat_one_path: path=a exclude=0
 trace: built-in: git 'ls-files' '-o' '-i' '--exclude-standard'
 treat_one_path: path=.gitignore exclude=0
 treat_one_path: path=a exclude=0
 treat_one_path: path=a/b exclude=1
 treat_one_path: path=a/b/c exclude=0
 treat_one_path: path=a/b/c/f exclude=0
 trace: built-in: git 'ls-files' '-o' '--directory' '-i' '--exclude-standard'
 treat_one_path: path=.gitignore exclude=0
 treat_one_path: path=a exclude=0
 trace: built-in: git 'clean' '-X' '-d' '-f'
 treat_one_path: path=.gitignore exclude=0
 treat_one_path: path=a exclude=0
 ... drumroll ...
 $

 1) a/b/f is not actually considered excluded; only its containing
    directory is.

 2) git clean does not even examine a/b to consider whether to remove
    it: since a/ does not contain any tracked files, it stopped there.

The following would cause "git clean -ndx" to print more than it
should, but hopefully it illustrates the idea.

diff --git a/builtin/clean.c b/builtin/clean.c
index b508d2c..91624c2 100644
--- a/builtin/clean.c
+++ b/builtin/clean.c
@@ -84,8 +84,6 @@ int cmd_clean(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 	if (force > 1)
 		rm_flags = 0;
 
-	dir.flags |= DIR_SHOW_OTHER_DIRECTORIES;
-
 	if (read_cache() < 0)
 		die("index file corrupt");
 
-- 

Re: [BUG] git clean -X behaviour when .gitignore has sub-directory entries

[Jean-Philippe Gariépy]

  On 09/27/2010 04:36 PM, Jonathan Nieder wrote:
> ...
>   1) a/b/f is not actually considered excluded; only its containing
>      directory is.
>
>   2) git clean does not even examine a/b to consider whether to remove
>      it: since a/ does not contain any tracked files, it stopped there.

Ok, thanks for your analysis.  Do you consider it a bug?



-- 
Jean-Philippe

Re: [BUG] git clean -X behaviour when .gitignore has sub-directory entries

[Jonathan Nieder]

Jean-Philippe Gariépy wrote:
>  On 09/27/2010 04:36 PM, Jonathan Nieder wrote:

>>...
>>  1) a/b/f is not actually considered excluded; only its containing
>>     directory is.
>>
>>  2) git clean does not even examine a/b to consider whether to remove
>>     it: since a/ does not contain any tracked files, it stopped there.
>
> Ok, thanks for your analysis.  Do you consider it a bug?

Yes.